LIB  R  ARY 

OF   THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

GIFT    OF" 


<  3 
O'C* 


„     .     ,    JUL  28  1893 
Kecetvea  ...,/< 

4  ccessions  No.&LjZS       Shelf  No. 


/^l 


REINCARNATION. 

Study  of  the  Human  Soul 

In  its  Relation  to  Re-Birth, 

Evolution,  Post-Mortem  States,   the 

Compound  Nature  of  Man,  Hypnotism,  Etc. 


BY 


JEROME  A.  ANDERSON,  M.  D.f  F.  T.  S, 


«/« is  decwve  of  the  que-stion  whether  the  Soul  exists  if  among  the  activities  and 

emotional  states  of  our  being  there  are  to    be  found  such  as 

do  not  belong  to  our    bodies."— ARISTOTLE. 


THE    LOTUS    PUBLISHING    COMPANY, 
1504  Market  Street,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 

MAY  8,  1893. 


COPYRIGHT,   1892, 
BY  JEROME  A.  ANDERSON,  M.  D..  F.T.S., 

I  I  70  Market  Street, 
SAN  FRANCISCO,    -          CALIFORNIA. 


7 


BY    A. 


PUPIL. 


PREFACE. 


''PHESE  pages  are  intended  to  present,  in  as  concise  a  form  as  pos- 
L  sible,  an  outline  of  certain  phenomena  in  nature,  together  with 
logical  and  philosophical  deductions  therefrom,  which  go  to  prove, 
first,  the  existence  of  a  soul,  and,  second,  the  repeated  incarnation  of 
this  soul  in  physical  bodies.  No  phenomena  will  be  considered  ex- 
cept such  as  have  been  fully  verified  and  accepted  as  a  portion  of  the 
armamentarium  of  modern  science.  That  there  are  vast  classes  of 
genuine  phenomena  not  acknowledged  as  genuine  by  science  is  well 
known;  and,  although  fully  entitled  to  an  appeal  to  these  in  support 
of  our  position,  it  has  been  thought  best  to  pass  them  by,  and  to 
meet  modern  scientific  agnosticism  entirely  upon  the  territory  of  its 
own  facts.  It  is  believed  that  by  thus  "carrying  the  war  into 
Egypt"  more  good  may  be  accomplished  in  directing  attention 
towards  the  higher  spiritual  aspects  of  these  phenomena  than  if  the 
argument  were  advanced  into  disputed  domains.  This  completely 
bars  access  to  an  immense  mass  of  so-called  spiritualistic  phenomena 
which,  while  very  far  from  establishing  the  fact  of  spirit  communi- 
cation in  the  manner  claimed  by  spiritualists,  are  still  of  great  im- 
portance as  illustrating  many  of  the  lower  psychic  faculties  of  man, 
and  his  essential  independence  of  his  body  in  their  production.  The 
numerous  marvels  of  many  countries,  and  especially  of  India,  have 
also  been  omitted;  for  they,  although  partly  accepted  by  scientists, 
who  fancy  they  find  in  "glamour  "  and  "collective  hallucination"  an 
explanation,  are  still  an  unclassified  residuum,  whose  scientific  ex- 
planation itself  needs  to  be  explained  even  more  than  the  phenomena 
for  which  it  attempts  to  account.  In  short,  the  purpose  of  this  book 
is  to  establish  the  fact  of  the  existence  and  repeated  rebirth  of  the 
soul  by  an  appeal  to  logic  and  reason  alone,  based  upon  phenomena 
of  such  universal  and  every-day  experience  that  all  who  choose  may 
verify  each  successive  step  taken,  or  phenomenon  to  which  reference 
is  had. 


PREFACE.  IV 

The  writer  was  bitterly  antagonized  by  the  idea  of  reincarnation 
when  he  first  became  familiar  with  it  in  Theosophic  literature  ;  but, 
after  careful  and  earnest  attempts  to  arrive  at  a  philosophic  or  scien- 
tific hypothesis  in  harmony  with  natural  phenomena  which  would 
render  this  view  unnecessary,  he  was  compelled  by  sheer  force  of 
facts  and  logic  to  accept  it.  The  trains  of  reasoning  followed,  and 
the  phenomena  appealed  to  are  outlined  in  these  pages.  They  are 
issued  in  the  hope  of  aiding  others  who  may  have  become,  as  the 
writer  had,  biased  toward  materialistic  views  by  a  one-sided  "scien- 
tific" education,  to  recognize  this  grand  truth.  The  attention  of 
inquirers  is  also  called  to  the  scholarly  work  of  the  late  E.  D.  Walker, 
and  to  the  occult,  intuitional,  and  philosophic  Manual  by  Mrs. 
Annie  Besant,  both  being  upon  the  same  subject — Reincarnation. 

J.  A.  A. 


CONTENTS. 


INTRODUCTION. ^  - 

THE  NATURE  AND  ORIGIN  OF  THE  SOUL. — The  Three  Abso- 
lute Hypostases — Consciousness — Substance — Force 9 

CHAPTER  I. 

THE  PHYSIOLOGICAL  EVIDENCE  OF  THE  EXISTENCE  OF  THE 
SOUL. — No  Physiological  Basis  for  the  Unity  of  Conscious- 
ness— Memory — Feeling,  Etc. — Mechanical  Motion  cannot 
Originate  Sensation. 13 

CHAPTER  II. 

THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  EVIDENCE  OF  THE  EXISTENCE  OF  THE 
SOUL. — The  Nature  of  Dream — Trance — Clairvoyance — 
Thought  Transference,  Etc 37 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE  EVOLUTION  OF  THE  SOUL. — The  Unit  of  Consciousness — 
from  Atom  to  God  by  the  Widening  of  the  Conscious  Area 
through  Experience,  Etc 55 

CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  INDIVIDUALIZATION  OF  THE  SOUL. — Centers  of  Conscious- 
ness Freed  by  Pralayas — The  Cycle  of  Necessity 76 

,        CHAPTER  V. 

REINCARNATION — PHILOSOPHIC  AND  LOGICAL  EVIDENCE. — 
Failure  of  One-Birth  Theories — Life  only  to  be  Explained  Philo- 
sophically by  Reincarnation 85 

CHAPTER  VI. 

REINCARNATION — THE  SCIENTIFIC  EVIDENCE. — Bulbs — 
Seeds — Metamorphosis  of  Insects — Genius — Idiocy — Prodigies, 
Etc. .  .  .102 


CONTENTS.  vii 

CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  COMPOSITE  NATURE  OF  THE  SOUL. — The  Seven    Aspects 
of  the  One  Center  of  Consciousnesss 116 

CHAPTER    VIII. 

THE  REINCARNATING  EGO. — The  Nature  and  Functions  of  the 
Higher  Ego 128 

CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  PERSONALITY. — The    Animal  Man — How  Related   to   the 
Divine  Man 147 

CHAPTER  X. 

POST-MORTEM  STATES  OF  CONSCIOUSNESS. — Devachan — Kama 
Loca  and  Nirvana — Nature  of. 158 

CHAPTER  XL 

HYPNOTISM  AND  THE  HUMAN  SOUL. — Hypnotic  Processes  and 
States  of  Consciousness 185 

CHAPTER  XII. 

OBJECTIONS  To  REINCARNATION. — Loss  of  Memory  Explained — 
Other  Objections  Answered 210 

CHAPTER    XIII. 

KARMA. — The  Law  of  Cause  and  Effect  on  all  Planes 220 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

ETHICAL  CONCLUSIONS.— 238 

APPENDIX. 

EMBRYOLOGY    AND    REINCARNATION. — The  Nutrition    of  the 
Fetus 245 


INTRODUCTION- 


THE  NATURE  AND   ORIGIN   OF   THE   SOUL. 

TT7HE  term  "  Soul"  may  be  defined  as  a  vehicle  for  con- 
sciousness. The  latter,  as  one  of  the  triple  aspects  of 
the  Unknowable  or  Absolute,  must  be  regarded  as  infinite. 
Anything  which,  by  limiting  this  infinity,  enables  con- 
sciousness to  manifest  upon  finite  and  knowable  planes  is 
therefore  classed  as  Soul.  The  Universal  Soul,  under  this 
definition,  would  be  the  vehicle  for  Universal — not  Abso- 
lute— Consciousness;  the  human  soul,  the  vehicle  for  the 
finite  manifestation  of  that  limitation  of  the  Infinite  which 
we  recognize  as  huma'n,  or  self-consciousness. 

The  material  aspect  of  the  Unknowable  seems  to  be 
the  means  by  which  Infinite  Consciousness  is  enabled  to 
manifest  finitely.  Hence,  all  Soul  has  its  ultimate  essence 
in  this  material  or  Substance-root  of  the  Unknowable,  and 
is  of  a  material  nature.  But  the  three  Aspect-Roots — 
the  third  being  Motion  or  Force — are  eternally  associated, 
so  that  one  must  not  fall  into  the  error  of  taking,  a  too 
materialistic  view  of  Soul.  If  it  is  the  material  vehicle  of 
consciousness  in  one  aspect,  it  is  in  another — by  virtue  of 
its  being  incapable  of  dissociation  from  this — consciousness 
itself.  It  is  only  because  of  philosophic  necessities  and  of 
certain  phenomena  of  consciousness  upon  the  material 
plane  that  Soul  is  thus  more  intimately  associated  with  the 
Substance-Aspect  of  the  Unknowable  Rootless  Root  than 
with  the  Conscious-Aspect. 

A  human  soul,  then,  is  a  center  of  consciousness  having 


X  INTRODUCTION. 

its  origin  in  Infinite  Consciousness,  and  limited  and 
brought  into  self-conscious  relations  with  itself  and  the 
Universe  by  a  material  vehicle.  In  its  inmost  essence, 
this  material  vehicle  is  derived  from  the  indestructible 
Substance- Aspect  of  the  Unknowable;  substance  of  so  re- 
fined and  ethereal  a  nature  as  to  utterly  transcend  all 
those  properties  and  qualities  with  which  we  ordinarily  as- 
sociate matter,  and  which,  because  of  this  and  because  it 
is  incapable  of  weight,  measurement  or  even  comparison 
with  the  matter  of  this  plane,  has  led  to  the  formulating 
of  the  absurdly  unscientific  and  unphilosophic  materialistic 
hypotheses  and  philosophies  of  to-day.  Instead  of  fol- 
lowing, by  correspondence  and  analogy,  the  retreat  of 
matter  into  those  realms  which  for  us  are  at  present  sub- 
jective, both  modern  science  and  so-called  materialistic 
philosophy  have  failed  to  recognize  the  philosophic  neces- 
sity for  that  Unity  which  must  underlie  every  aspect  of 
nature,  and  have  in  consequence  utterly  failed  to  bridge 
the  illusionary  chasm  which  seems  to  divide  spirit — or 
consciousness — from  matter.  It  is,  of  course,  impossible 
to  carry  molecular  physics  grossly  and  bodily  over  into 
conscious  realms;  but  it  is  quite  possible,  and  the  only 
philosophic  procedure,  to  carry  the  molecular  laws  of  the 
conservation  of  force  and  the  correlation  of  energy  over 
into  the  realms  of  (comparatively)  pure  consciousness. 
By  so  doing,  we  at  once  secure  a  firm  and  stable  founda- 
tion for  our  philosophic  superstructure.  There  is  no 
longer  a  necessity  for  "scientific"  laws  and  hypotheses  for 
one  kingdom  of  nature,  and  quite  a  different  and  con- 
flicting code  for  another,  as  is  the  case  with  modern  scien- 
tific attempts  to  deal  with  mind  and  matter  as  though 
they  were  totally  separate  and  distinct  elements  in  the 


INTRODUCTION.  XI 

Universe.  The  same  lack  of  an  unifying  base  is  also  pain- 
fully apparent  in  dealing  with  purely  physical  sciences;  as, 
for  example,  in  the  disagreements  of  geologic  and  as- 
tronomic calculations  of  the  age  of  the  earth. 

It  follows  from  the  above  that  "Soul"  must  be  a  generic 
term,  and  "Souls"  capable  of  infinite  gradation  and  classifi- 
cation. From  the  anima  mundi,  the  "  Over-Soul"  of 
Emerson,  down  to  the  unifying  center  of  consciousness 
which  makes  possible  the  molecular  combination  forming 
the  structure  of  the  humblest  am<zba — aye,  down  to  that 
diffuse  attraction  which  combines  even  inorganic  nature 
into  form — the  term  "Soul"  applies.  For  the  material  Uni- 
verse, from  our  puerile,  finite  point  of  view  at  least,  would 
seem  to  be  a  vast  evolutionary  laboratory  constructed  in 
Space  and  Time,  into  which  enters  pure  Spirit,  or  Con- 
sciousness, and  which,  forever  disappearing  as  such,  eter- 
nally reappears  in  endless  intelligent  variations  and  trans- 
mutations of  form.  Form  is  but  the  result  of  Infinite 
Consciousness  seeking  finite  expression  in  matter.  Every 
tree  is  a  materialized  or  externalized  idea;  every  flower,  a 
sculptured  poem;  every  appearance  of  form,  a  passing 
from  Infinite  Ideation  into  finite  expression  through  finite 
limitation :  and  all  this  under  law  so  absolute,  so  in- 
violable, that  a  single  exception  to  or  escape  from  its  uni- 
versal domain  is  unthinkable.  This  law,  the  one  stable 
bond  which  unites  the  knowable  to  the  Unknowable,  the 
finite  to  the  Infinite,  is  that  of  Cause  and  Effect;  the 
Karma  of  Eastern  philosophy  and  modern  Theosophy. 
Its  objective  arc  appears  upon  this  plane  under  the 
guise  of  Evolution ;  its  subjective  arc,  when  not  entirely 
ignored,  is  known  as  Involution.  An  involution  of  spirit, 
or  consciousness,  equals  an  evolution  of  matter  into  form. 


xil  INTRODUCTION. 

"  Soul,"  therefore,  in  the  abstract,  stands  for  and  is  the 
Substance-Aspect  of  the  Unknowable,  by  means  of  which 
both  involution  and  evolution  of  the  Conscious- Aspect,  or 
"  Spirit,"  is  accomplished. 

Yet,  throughout  this  work,  by  the  term  "  human  soul" 
is  meant  a  self-conscious  center  of  Consciousness — not  a 
center  of  Substance.  The  latter  limits,  defines  and  makes 
possible  the  existence  of  this  individualized  center;  but 
while  an  absolutely  necessary  element,  this  necessity 
would  seem  somewhat  mechanical.  The  Conscious- 
Aspect,  the  "  I,"  the  Unit  of  Consciousness,  by  which 
alone  the  finite  universe  may  be  measured  and  known,  is 
the  supreme  essential.  If  it  be,  apparently,  confused 
with  its  relatively  lower  material  vehicle  by  speaking  of  it 
as  the  human  soul,  it  is  because  of  the  poverty  of  the 
English  language  in  accurate  metaphysical  terms,  and 
also  because  it  can  not,  even  in  thought,  be  entirely  dis- 
sociated from  this  vehicle.  That  by  the  human  soul  is 
really  understood  a  center  of  self-consciousness,  and  not 
its  substance  base,  will  become  plainly  apparent  when,  in 
the  course  of  this  study,  we  shall  find  this  center  using 
"  souls,"  or  vehicles,  composed  of  varying  differentiations 
of  Substance,  accordingly  as  it  functions  upon  objective 
or — to  us — subjective  planes: 


triZVIlt.SXT? 


REINCARNATION. 


A  STUDY  OF  THE  SOUL. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE      PHYSIOLOGICAL     EVIDENCE      OF     THE 
EXISTENCE    OF    THE    SOUL, 

JT  STUDY  of  the  Soul,  or  of  those  phenomena  of con- 
X\.  sciousness  usually  classed  under  this  head,  must 
logically  be  prefaced  by  proof  that  a  "soul"  really  exists. 
Some  doubt  arises  as  to  whether  this  can  be  best  accom- 
plished by  an  examination  of  those  general  evolutionary 
processes  which  lead  up  to  the  human  soul  as  a  necessary 
sequence,  or  whether  the  phenomena  of  human  conscious- 
ness itself  shall  be  first  considered.  As  appeal  will  be 
taken  to  both  classes  of  phenomena,  it  has  been  thought 
best  to  begin  with  the  latter  method,  leaving  the  broader 
and  more  philosophic  generalizations  of  evolution  to 
follow.  The  evidence  of  a  soul,  then,  will  be  sought 
first  in  Human  Physiology. 

Without  cumbering  the  argument  with  histological,  ana- 
tomical, or  even  physiological  details,  to  be  found  in  the 
numerous  text-books  upon  these  subjects,  let  it  suffice  to 
state  generally  that  these  and  allied  sciences  prove  that 


14  A   STUDY   OF   THE   SOUL. 

the  human  body  is  a  mechanism  constructed  and  con- 
trolled from  within,  without,  by  a  central  energy  called 
variously  "mind,"  "soul,"  "spirit,"  or  "Ego,"  according  to 
the  inclination  or  bias  of  the  writer.  The  existence  of 
this  central  energy  is  disputed  by  no  one;  the  issue  being 
as  to  the  relation  it  sustains  to  the  body.  Broadly  de- 
fined, Materialism  declares  the  mind  or  soul  to  be  the  prod- 
uct of  the  molecular  activities  going  on  within  the  brain ; 
or,  if  not  a  direct  product,  at  least  a  concomitant  of  these. 
Under  this  view,  it  must  necessarily  cease  to  exist  when 
the  brain  molecules  cease  their  activities.  To  account  for 
the  appearance  of  a  conscious  factor  as  an  outcome  of 
purely  mechanical  motion  among  molecules,  it  declares 
this  to  be  a  "property"  of  matter,  capable  of  being  exhibit- 
ed under  certain  conditions  similarly  as  electricity  may 
be  made  to  manifest  its  presence  under  proper  excitation. 
Spiritualism  takes  directly  the  opposite  view.  It  declares 
that,  while  it  is  true  that  molecular  activities  are  the  coun- 
terparts of  conscious  experience,  upon  this  plane,  the  rela- 
tion of  effect  is  entirely  upon  the  material  side ;  that  the 
mind  or  soul  is  causal,  and  quite  superior  to  and  independ- 
ent of  the  body,  except  as  this  is  a  mechanism  of  sense 
organs  constructed  and  synthesized  by  it,  in  order  to  re- 
late its  higher  consciousness  to  material  planes.  There 
can  thus  be  no  compromise;  one  or  the  other  theory  errs. 
A  little  examination  makes  it  evident  that  all  thought, 
emotion,  willing  or  feeling  arise  from  and  in  the  inner  re- 
cesses of  our  being,  and  are  then  reflected  outwards  in 
speech  or  action,  or  remain  as  unexpressed,  subjective 
ideas  or  feelings.  It  is  quite  true  that  this  inner  arousing 
is  apparently  due  primarily  to  external  stimuli  alone,  and 
that  all  through  life  external  impressions  transmuted  into 


THE   PHYSIOLOGICAL   EVIDENCE.  15 

sensations  form  a  much  larger  basis  for  even  the  highest 
intellectual  life  than  would  be  suspected  except  upon  a 
searching  analysis.  But  ex  nihilo  nihil  fit;  and  if  there 
were  not  present  in  the  body  a  potential  center  of  con- 
ciousness  capable  of  being  aroused,  external  stimuli  might 
knock  for  eternal  ages  at  the  door  of  life  without  awaken- 
ing a  conscious  response. 

Here,  at  the  first  step,  then,  the  battle  for  the  existence 
of  the  soul  begins.  For  when  physiologists  or  psycholo- 
gists say,  though  ever  so  glibly  and  confidently,  that  an 
external  stimulus  has  been  converted  through  nervous 
"shock"  into  a  "sense"  impression,  they  are  assuming  to 
explain  a  process  of  which  they  have  absolutely  no  knowl- 
edge, and  which  no  microscope  nor  culture  chamber  has 
ever  demonstrated,  nor  can  ever  hope  to  demonstrate. 
For,  "if  by  nervous  shock  be  meant  a  psychical  event,  the 
break  between  such  shock  and  the  nerve  commotion  which 
is  its  antecedent  is  absolutely  impassible.  No  physical 
energy,  under  the  general  laws  of  its  conservation  and  cor- 
relation, can  pass  this  break."*  Nor  no  lightly  leaping 
across  a  chasm  proves  its  non-existence.  In  sound,  for 
example,  an  entirely  mechanical  and  physical  shock  has 
been  transmuted  into  terms  of  consciousness  utterly  unlike 
its  cause.  Until  it  can  be  shown  both  how  and  why  me- 
chanical motion  becomes  sensation,  two  factors  must  be  as- 
sumed. These  are  the  receiver  and  transmitter  of  the 
nervous  shock  or  commotion,  and  the  inner  observer  of 
this  commotion,  as  it  records  itself  in  molecular  agitation 
or  changes  within  the  brain. 

It  will  be  cheerfully  admitted  that  this  inner  observer  is 

*L/add's  Physiological  Psychology,  p.  628,  to  which  magnificent 
work  I  am  more  indebted  in  the  preparation  of  this  chapter  than  any 
quotation  marks  can  adequately  indicate. 


1 6  A    STUDY    OF   THE   SOUL. 

quite  dependent  upon  the  physical  apparatus  for  sensation 
upon  and  communication  with  the  material  plane,  but  this 
dependence  in  no  way  argues  its  non-existence  as  an  en- 
tity, or  the  non-possibility  of  its  possessing  much  higher 
powers  upon  its  own  spiritual  plane  than  its  sense  organs 
enable  it  to  display  upon  this.  As  has  been  beautifully 
pointed  out  by  Prof.  Ladd : 

"Beings  do  not  lose  their  reality,  or  characteristic  nature,  or  value 
in  the  universe  of  Being,  because  they  are  causally  connected  with 
other  beings.  On  the  contary,  none  but  real  beings  can  thus  be  con- 
nected with  each  other;  none  but  real  beings  can  act  and  be  acted 
upon.  The  so-called  causal  connection  is  no  bondage  of  such  nature 
as  to  destroy  the  nature  of  the  beings  which  act  under  it.  Only 
beings  that  have  natures  of  their  own  can  be  causally  connected.  In 
other  words,  all  that  appears  to  us  as  a  causal  relation  between  the 
objects  of  our  experience  is,  ultimately  considered,  due  to  no  mate- 
rial spur  or  whip  which  urges,  or  band  that  represses,  as  though  one 
kind  of  real  being  could  thus  dominate  and  subdue  another.  No 
atom  acts  without  being  acted  on ;  what  it  does  depends  both  upon 
what  it  is  and  also  upon  how  it  stands  related  to  other  atoms."* 

The  break  between  physical  motion  and  conscious  sen- 
sation, if  there  really  be  one,  is  between  the  sentient  atom 
and  the  physical  molecule.  And  Prof.  Ladd  is  therefore 
quite  correct  in  insisting  that: 

"No  relation  exists  between  these  two  kinds  of  beings  [soul  and 
body]  which  can  be  represented  as  an  interchange  of  physical  energy, 
under  the  law  of  the  conservation  and  correlation  of  such  energy. 
This  fact,  however,  affords  no  objection  to  our  recognizing  a  true 
causal  connection  between  the  two,  unless  we  are  ready  to  insist 
upon  the  monstrous  claim  that  modern  physical  science  is  entitled 
to  affirm  the  impossibility  of  any  interaction  (or  conditional  action) 
taking  place  in  the  universe  otherwise  than  between  material  atoms 
under  the  aforesaid  law. ' '  t 

*Loc.  Cit.,  p.  661.     flvoc.  Cit.,  p.  663  et  seq. 


THE   PHYSIOLOGICAL    EVIDENCE.  17 

Yet  the  soul  is  not  utterly  unrelated  to  the  body  by  the 
actual  transmission  of  energy;  for  were  this  the  case  a 
physical  response  to  the  will  would  be  impossible.  There 
is  a  transmission  of  energy  from  the  soul  to  the  body, 
actual  and  real,  but  it  does  not  consist  in  the  ebbing 
and  flowing  of  physical  force  The  soul  may  be  said  to 
use  modes  of  the  "inter-etheric  force"  of  Keeley,  for  its 
material  base  is  composed  necessarily  of  these  inner  and 
more  potent  states  of  matter.  These  forces  the  soul  lib- 
erates in  willing,  which  latter  results  in  motion  upon  its  own 
plane ;  and  this,  while  not  interchanging,  is  the  cause  of  a 
corresponding  molecular  motion  on  the  plane  below.  It  is 
thus  true  that  each  cycle  of  energy  is  unrelated  in  the  way 
of  the  conservation  or  correlation  of  the  energy  of  one 
plane  upon  that  of  the  other;  for  each  completes  its  cycle 
in  its  own  proper  field  of  action,  and  no  mode  of  force 
belonging  to  one  plane  passes  over  from  that  to  another. 
But  each  can  none  the  less  act  upon  the  other;  and,  in  the 
case  of  the  soul,  the  terrible  inter-etheric  nature  of  the 
energy  used  may  be  seen  in  instances  of  the  sudden 
death  of  the  body  from  fright,  anger  or  strong  emo- 
tion. Physical  force  and  soul,  or  will-force,  touch  each 
other's  boundaries,  but  the  very  rebound  keeps  each  acting 
in  its  own  proper  domain.  Yet  this  touch  is  actual,  and 
sets  up  motion  on  the  other  plane;  though,  as  correctly 
pointed  out  by  Prof.  Ladd,  nothing  physical  passes  from 
the  one  to  the  other.  Nor  does  anything  physical  pass 
when  one  moving  billiard  ball  strikes  another,  yet  the  lat- 
ter is  none  the  less  set  in  motion.  In  the  same  manner 
there  is  no  plane  of  the  manifested  cosmos  utterly  unre- 
lated to  others.  Effects  may  pass  though  causes  do  not. 


1 8  A    STUDY    OF    THE   SOUL. 

The  human  nervous  system  is  plainly  a  mechanism  to 
relate  entities  thus  acting  upon  different  planes  and  using 
dissimilar  modes  of  force.  It  has  its  end-organs  to  receive 
impacts  from  without,  or  those  from  the  material  world; 
its  system  of  nerve-wires  to  conduct — not  the  shocks,  but 
certain  effects  of  these  entirely  unlike  them  in  essence — 
to  the  brain  and  minor  ganglia;  and,  lastly,  these  gangli- 
onic  collections  of  gray  matter,  to  receive  and  to  send  out 
counter-shocks  or  commotions  to  other  appropriate  end- 
organs,  which  cause  motion  in  response  to  such  stimuli. 
Yet  in  this,  which  seems  so  entirely  mechanical,  there  has 
entered  a  factor  which  has  hopelessly  removed  it  from  the 
domain  of  material  physics,  and  which  demonstrates  that 
by  means  of  the  highly  complex  nervous  organism  the 
body  has  been  related  to  the  plane  of  spirit,  or  conscious- 
ness. Motion  has  been  translated  into  terms  of  sensation, 
a  thing  unthinkable  except  as  the  act  of  a  conscious  en- 
tity. Motion  can  not  become  sensation;  it  can  only  be  rec- 
ognized as  motion  by  a  conscious  entity,  and  conscious 
inferences  or  information  deduced  therefrom.  A  billiard 
ball  may  be  made  to  strike  another,  and  this  still  another ; 
but  no  synthesizing  power  arises  out  of  the  original  impact 
or  resulting  motion.  Nor  could  such  power  arise  though 
force  enough  were  used  to  keep  the  whole  set  caroming 
among  each  other  for  ages.  Logic  and  reason  absolutely 
require  the  presence  of  the  conscious  factor  to  take  note  of 
the  molecular  commotion  caused  by  the  physical  impact, 
and  to  originate  upon  its  part  n,ew  and  appropriate  mole- 
cular agitations  in  response,  in  the  manner  indicated. 

There  must  be,  then,  a  conscious  entity  moving  both 
billiard  balls  and  brain  molecules,  else  neither  could  ever 
synthesize  themselves  into  orderly  sequences.  That  there 


THE   PHYSIOLOGICAL   EVIDENCE.  19 

are  certain  complex  reflex  responses  continually  taking 
place,  which  are  even  absolutely  necessary  to  our  existence, 
without  rising  to  the  plane  of  our  brain  or  mind  conscious- 
ness, does  not  weaken,  but  rather  strengthens,  the  argu- 
ment for  such  an  entity.  For  the  greater  the  complexity 
of  the  mechanism,  the  greater  the  necessity  for  an  intelli- 
gent, synthesizing  center  of  consciousness  to  control  this 
complexity.  And,  as  evolution  shows,  these  minor  cen- 
ters of  activity  are  lower  entities,  in  a  universe  which  is 
but  embodied  consciousness  of  some  degree,  working  their 
way  upward  in  the  scale  of  becoming,  and  aided  very  ma- 
terially by  this  association  with  a  superior  directing  and 
controlling  energy. 

The  psychical  experiences  arising  from  physical  energy 
acting  upon  the  periphery  of  the  body  are  too  unlike  that 
energy  to  be  related  directly  thereto.  There  are  many 
physiological  processes  necessary  before  the  energy  rises 
above  the  threshold  of  consciousness  as  a  psychical  ex- 
perience. What  these  are  physiology  can  not  explain, 
and  psychology  is  equally  helpless.  At  the  physical  side 
they  may  be  first  simply  dynamic,  and  then  complex  or 
chemical;  at  the  psychic  threshold,  they  must  be  the  per- 
ceptions of  a  conscious,  cognizing  entity.  In  man  alone 
this  entity  is  self-conscious,  but  an  entity  of  some  degree 
is  none  the  less  present  in  every  form  of  organic  life  as  its 
synthesizer  and  organizer.  That  even  in  man  the  relation 
between  this  inner  cognizer  and  the  form  through  which  it 
acts  is  intimate  and  mutually  dependent,  goes  without 
saying.  The  immediate  agent  in  this  intimacy  is  undoubt- 
edly the  mechanism  of  the  nervous  system,  the  duty  of 
which  is  to  concatenate  or  synthesize  the  sense  impres- 
sions arising  out  of  the  innumerable  physical  impacts  upon 


20  A   STUDY   OF   THE   SOUL. 

the  periphery  of  them  body.  But  a  mechanism  requires  a 
mechanic,  and  this  is  plainly  the  inner  soul.  There  can  be 
no  equality  between  a  mere  mechanism,  as  such,  and  the 
intelligence  which  directs  it.  In  the  case  of  man,  too,  the 
mechanism  does  not  express  the  entire  powers  of  its  inner 
mover,  which  of  itself  quite  disproves  the  materialistic 
theory,  however  much  we  might  otherwise  be  inclined  to 
accept  it.  There  is  positively  no  physical  equivalent  pos- 
sible for  any  of  the  higher  faculties.  What  particular  mo- 
tion among  the  molecules  of  the  brain  can  .be  postulated 
as  the  physical  equivalent  and  causal  antecedent  of  our 
conceptions  of  justice,  of  truth,  of  moral  obligation?  The 
feeblest  mind  revolts  against  such  a  crass  conception  of 
its  native  powers.  Perception  and  sensation  may  be  con- 
ceived of  as  arising  out  of  physical  correlates,  but  no  such 
correlate  can  be  conceived  of  the  being  who  moves  about, 
as  it  were,  among  these,  selecting  this  one  and  rejecting 
that.  The  physical  brain  is  limited  to  motion  only;  it  can 
not  choose  its  own  mode  of  motion  even. 

Of  these  powers,  which  even  the  wildest  materialism  can 
not  connect  with  any  physical  process,  the  unity  of  con- 
sciousness is  perhaps  the  most  convincing  proof  of  the  ex- 
istence of  a  soul.  Unity  is  unique  in  consciousness;  it  is 
undefinable,  unapproachable ;  yet  none  the  less  it  IS;  and 
every  act,  thought,  emotion,  willing  or  feeling  is,  con- 
sciously or  unconsciously,  built  upon  and  referred  to  this 
underlying  unit,  the  "I  am  I."  All  the  myriad  states  of 
consciousness  are  recognized  by  this  ''I"  as  its  own.  The 
states,  indeed,  may  result  from  external  causes  in  nature,  or 
internal,  within  the  organism;  but  the  "I,"  the  unit  of  con- 
sciousness, the  synthesizer  of  them  all,  has  no  such  rela- 
tion. It  is,  in  truth,  a  reflection  of  that  incomprehensible 


THE   PHYSIOLOGICAL   EVIDENCE.  21 

Unity  which  is  One  and  yet  All,  at  the  dawn  of  a  manvan- 
tara.  No  number  of  successive  states  of  consciousness  can 
constitute  the  unity  which  synthesizes  and  connects  them 
all.  The  string  of  pearls  must  have  a  real  string,  or  they 
are  but  individual  gems,  not  a  sequence  of  them.  Nor  can 
any  conceivable  number  of  molecules  constitute  unity,  for 
upon  their  own  plane  each  is  a  unit,  and  no  mere  combi- 
nation of  them  can  produce  self-conscious  unity  upon  a 
higher.  They  can  be  synthesized  by  unity  from  above 
into  a  complex  system  upon  their  own  plane,  but  even  in 
this  relation  they  are  units  grouped,  not  unity. 

Again,  the  mind  is  a  unit,  or  it  could  not  perceive  it- 
self at  all.  If  it  were  composed  of  a  complexity  of  varying 
states  it  would  exist  only  as  such  variety,  and  no  one  state 
would  have  any  real  hold  upon  or  memory  of  those  past, 
or  anticipation  of  those  to  come.  We  can  not  conceive, 
much  less  perceive,  any  quality  in  nature  which  we  do  not 
possess.  It  would  be  so  foreign,  so  utterly  unrelated  to 
our  consciousness  that  we  might  owe  our  very  being  to  it 
without  being  aware  of  its  existence.  Unity  can  alone 
recognize  unity — can  alone  construct  unit  things  out  of  the 
objects  in  nature.  We  recognize  such  unit  beings  or 
"things"  in  nature ;  we  could  not  bestow  this  quality  upon 
them  did  we  not  possess  it,  nor  could  we  recognize  it  at 
the  base  of  our  "I  am  I"  if  it  were  not  really  there.  As 
has  been  so  forcibly  pointed  out  by  Lotze: 

"No  twisting  of  imagination,  or  subtlety  of  argument,  can  show 
how  a  mind  not  really  one  could  appear  to  itself  at  all;  or  break  the 
strength  of  the  conviction  inwrought  into  the  very  structure  of  self- 
consciousness,  that  the  real  and  spiritual  being,  which  we  call  Mind, 
is  not  a  fortunate  confluence  or  phenomenal  center  of  changing 
modes,  but  a  unit-being,  and  a  reason  of  all  unity  in  whatever  be- 
comes the  object  of  its  thought."* 

*Loc.  Cit,  p.  687. 


22  A   STUDY   OF   THE   SOUL. 

Nor  does  this  recognition  of  a  real  unit,  an  "I  am  my- 
self," ever  vary,  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave.  Through 
pain  and  grief,  in  joy  or  gladness,  in  youth  or  age,  though 
means  after  means  of  communication  with  externals  be 
cut  off  by  disease  or  old  age,  through  every  conceivable 
mental  change  of  opinion  or  belief,  the  "I  am  I"  is  equally 
undisturbed.  The  connection  between  soul  and  body 
must  be  absolutely  severed  by  insanity  (disease)  or  death 
for  this  center  of  consciousness  to  cease  to  recognize  itself 
upon  this  plane,  even  as  a  real,  abiding  unity.  Every 
state  of  consciousness  is  constantly  referred  to  this  "I"  as 
its  base,  as  the  subject  which  experiences  the  state.  A 
mental  self-conscious  state  not  involving  an  "I"  at  its  base 
is  absolutely  unthinkable. 

In  this  "I,"  thus  shown  to  be  necessary  to  self-conscious 
existence,  there  are  many  other  attributes,  besides  those  we 
have  been  studying,  incapable  of  arising  out  of  any  combi- 
nation of  sense-perceptions,  and  which  must  therefore  be 
inherent  to  or  potential  within  itself.  One  such  is  mem- 
ory. This  is  a  reproduction  in  consciousness,  not  only  of 
things  not  there,  but  of  things  which  never  were  there. 
For  the  things  we  perceive  through  our  senses  are  not 
stored  up  in  the  brain  even  as  infinitesimally  small  pict- 
ures or  representations,  for  they  never  reach  our  brain  as 
such.  It  is  only  the  effects  of  these,  recorded  in  molecu- 
lar changes,  which  are  thus  stored,  and  the  mind  in  re- 
membering has  to  take  these  old  effects,  connect  them  with 
their  old  causes,  and  from  this  construct  the  old  represen- 
tation. Truly,  this  is  a  creative  process,  requiring  a  crea- 
tive center  of  consciousness,  and  a  center  which  can  only 
exercise  this  power  through  its  being  one  in  essence  with 
creative  consciousness  in  nature.  It  requires  an  abiding, 


THE   PHYSIOLOGICAL    EVIDENCE.  23 

permanent  "I,"  or  the  picture  could  not  be  recognized  as 
belonging  to  a  past  experience.  As  has  been  pointed  out 
by  Prof.  Ladd : 

"It  is  a  fact  of  consciousness,  on  which  all  possibility  of  connected 
experience  and  of  recorded  and  cumulative  human  knowledge  is  de- 
pendent, that  certain  phases  or  products  of  consciousness  appear 
with  a  claim  to  stand  for  [to  represent]  past  experiences  to  which  they 
are  regarded  as  in  some  respect  similar.  It  is  this  peculiar  claim  in 
consciousness  which  constitutes  the  essence  of  an  act  of  memory;  it 
is  this  which  makes  memory  wholly  inexplicable  as  a  mere  persist- 
ence or  recurrence  of  similar  impressions.  It  is  this  which  makes 
conscious  memory  a  spiritual  phenomenon,  the  explanation  of  which , 
as  arising  out  of  nervous  processes  and  conditions,  is  not  simply  un- 
discoverable  in  fact,  but  utterly  incapable  of  approach  by  imagina- 
tion. When,  then,  we  speak  of  a  physical  basis  of  memory,  recogni- 
tion must  be  made  of  the  complete  inability  of  science  to  suggest  any 
physical  process  which  can  be  conceived  of  as  correlated  with  that 
peculiar  and  mysterious  actus  of  the  mind,  connecting  its  present 
and  its  past,  which  constitutes  the  essence  of  memory."* 

Again,  memory  proves  a  unit  center  because  each  soul 
remembers  its  own  experiences  only.  It  cannot  encroach 
upon  those  of  another,  which  would  be  the  case  if  there 
were  any  general  remembrance  possible  in  nature.  No 
chasm  can  be  more  abrupt  or  impassible  than  the  line 
which  divides  conscious  experiences;  and  no  theory  will 
account  for  this  except  that  of  permanent,  conscious  unit- 
centers  or  souls.  It  is  granted  that  impressions  are  regis- 
tered not  only  in  the  brain,  but  in  every  tissue  of  the  body 
as  well,  for  each  organ  has  its  memory,  but — 

"For  that  spiritual  activity  which  actually  puts  together  in  con- 
sciousness the  sensations,  there  can  not  even  be  suggested  the  be- 
ginning of  a  physical  explanation."! 

*Loc.  Cit.,  p.  558.     tLoc.  Cit.,  p.  556. 


24  A    STUDY    OF   THE   SOUL. 

This-is  to  be  found  in  a  unifying  center,  or  soul,  alone. 
Memory,  then,  is  a  conscious  reproduction  by  a  permanent 
center  of  consciousness,  an  "I  am  myself,"  of  past  experi- 
ences. Especially  will  this  be  apparent  when  the  relation 
of  will  to  memory  is  considered.  We  consciously  and  de- 
liberately will  to  reproduce  past  events — an  impossible 
process  were  there  not  within  us  the  subject  of  those 
experiences  we  will  to  recall. 

In  the  Will,  also,  we  find  a  power  native  to  the  soul, 
and  one  unthinkable  except  as  the  action  of  a  conscious 
entity.  As  well  predicate  thought  without  a  Thinker  as 
will  without  a  Willing  Entity.  This  faculty  is  entirely 
without  a  physical  basis,  or  at  least  it  has  no  physical  or- 
gans, but  pervades  the  entire  structure  of  the  body,  ap- 
parently as  the  agent  of  an  inner,  controlling  essence. 
Nor  is  an  organ  necessary;  for  the  simple,  homogeneous 
speck  of  protoplasm  known  as  the  amoeba,  structureless 
and  entirely  destitute  of  organs,  exercises  this  faculty  un- 
deniably in  those  changes  it  makes  "which  can  not  be 
wholly  explained  by  reference  to  any  change  in  its  envi- 
ronments." Its  superiority  to  and  control  over  the  body 
as  a  purely  physical  mechanism  is  shown  by  the  fact, 
pointed  out  by  Duchenne,  and  others,  that  the  will  is  the 
very  first  agent  to  act  upon  restored  nerve  fibers  after  their 
injury.  It  is  the  active  agent  of  consciousness  in  selecting 
what  sensations  and  perceptions,  among  the  vast  number 
continuously  clamoring  for  the  soul's  attention,  shall  be  at- 
tended to.  It  can  even  change  the  very  reports,  so  to 
speak,  of  those  sense  organs,  upon  whose  action  material- 
ism would  fain  have  us  base  its  coming  into  existence. 
Willing,  too,  is  a  purely  mental  activity.  No  passing-over 
of  force  from  spiritual  to  physical  realms  accompanies  its 


THE   PHYSIOLOGICAL    EVIDENCE.  25 

action.  There  is  positively  no  physical  energy  expended  in 
willing.  All  the  apparent  effort  is  entirely  the  result  of  the 
physical  mechanism  carrying  out,  or  attempting  to  carry 
out,  the  mandates  of  the  will,  as  pronounced  by  the  Ego. 

Like  the  memory,  too,  the  will  is  always  specialized. 
There  is  no  general  willing;  it  can  only  act  with  a  definite 
object.  Its  sole  material  connection  is  that  when  a  fiat 
of  the  will  issues  certain  molecules,  associated  with  the 
line  of  action  willed,  move.  But  this  shows  an  extraneous 
mover.  It  is  a  physical  correlation  of  molecules  with  an 
act  of  consciousness;  not  an  origination  in  such  motion  of 
either  will  or  consciousness.  Were  there  no  other  evi- 
dence, the  undoubtedly  genuine  cases  of  recovery  from 
deep-seated  diseases  under  the  action  of  the  will  would  be 
sufficient  to  show  that  it  is  either  the  agent  of  th$  mind, 
or  the  mind  itself,  in  activity,  and  quite  superior  to  the 
physical  body  which  it  controls.  It  is  true  that,  primarily, 
acts  of  the  will  arise  out  of  sensations  and  perceptions 
depending  upon  environment;  but  the  choosing  among 
these  of  the  particular  perception  or  sensation  to  which 
the  attention  shall  be  directed  is  a  new  element,  which 
can  not  be  relegated  to  mere  experiences,  or  a  combina- 
tion of  any  other  mental  activities.  It  is  a  deliberate 
choice  of  a  tool  by  an  artisan  having  more  than  one  at 
his  disposal. 

For  if  we  examine  these  very  sensations  themselves, 
which  materialism  claims  have  arisen  out  of  mechanical 
motion  among  physical  molecules,  we  find  that  they  are 
located  in  the  mind  itself,  and  not  in  the  body.  They 
evade  all  attempts  to  reduce  them  to  the  domain  of 
physics  by  measurement.  There  is  no  standard  in  all 
molecular  physics  to  determine  the  amount  of  sensation 


26  A    STUDY    OF    THE   SOUL. 

involved  in  a  "severe"  pain  or  a  "highly  pleasurable"  feel- 
ing. Being  activities  of  the  mind  alone,  and  only  corre- 
lated with,  not  transmuted  from,  molecular  activities,  they 
can  only  be  expressed  in  terms  of  consciousness,  not  in 
those  of  physics. 

We  have  several  sense  organs,  also,  each  carrying  a 
distinct  class  of  impressions  to  the  mind.  To  synthesize 
these  widely  varying  activities  into  a  harmonious  whole, 
recognized  by  the  "I  am  I"  as  its  experiences,  requires 
that  this  "I  am  I"  should  be  separate  from  and  superior 
to  any  one  or  all  of  them.  And  upon  this  ability  to  as- 
sociate different  classes  of  sensations  is  built  the  mind's 
power  to  project  and  locate  in  space  those  objects  which 
its  sense-organs  bring  into  its  environment.  The  sensa- 
tions themselves  can  not  be  extended  within  the  brain ; 
it  requires  a  power  potent  in  the  soul  itself  to  project 
into  space  certain  sensations  depending,  as  has  been 
pointed  out,  upon  molecular  activities  entirely  unlike  them 
in  action  and  essence.  The  presence  of  this  synthesizing 
center  is  shown  unquestionably  by  the  fact  that  a  syn- 
thesis does  take  place — that  two  or  more  distinct  sensations 
are  unified  in  the  mind  as  one  object.  Were  there  not 
this  synthesizing  center,  different  senses,  such  as  sight, 
hearing  and  touch,  might  all  report  the  same  object;  but 
how  could  any  knowledge  arise  that  all  these  reports  re- 
ferred to  the  same  thing  without  a  synthesizer?  Except  for 
synthesis,  also,  there  could  be  but  one  sensation  at  a  time 
actively  present  in  a  consciousness  compounded  only  of 
varying  states.  And  were  there  but  one  sense  organ, 
which  would  be  practically  the  case  if  but  one  could  act  at 
once,  our  concepts  of  time  and  space  would  be  so  changed 
that  we  would  be  as  unlike  our  present  selves  as  an  oys- 


THE    PHYSIOLOGICAL    EVIDENCE.  27 

ter,  whose  consciousness,  indeed,  must  be  largely  similar 
to  that  which  ours  would  be  under  such  circumstances. 

Sensations  and  ideas  are  themselves  only  phenomena, 
and  not  entities.  It  is  impossible,  therefore,  for  a  sensa- 
tion to  be  the  subject  of  its  own  states;  there  is  absolutely 
required  an  entity  for  this  purpose.  Nor  can  any  reason 
be  given  why  motion  should  become  sensation.  It  is  not 
a  product  of  evolution  As  pointed  out  by  Prof.  Ladd: 

'  'That  I  am  affected  with  a  certain  sensation  of  color,  lying  at  the 
bottom  of  the  spectrum's  scale,  when  several  billion  vibrations  of 
ether  strike  the  retina,  and  with  a  qualitatively  different  sensation 
when  the  number  of  vibrations  is  increased  by  several  billions  more, 
cannot  be  explained  as  an  evolution.  The  same  remark  holds  with- 
in the  limits  of  each  of  the  other  senses.  Their  scales  of  quality  are 
not  such  that  experiences  at  one  place  of  the  scale  can  be  evolved 
from  those  at  other  places  of  the  scale.  Some  of  them,  such  as  smell 
and  taste,  do  not  admit  of  being  referred  to  any  form  of  a  scale  dia- 
gram representing  relations  of  quality.  The  feeling  of  heat  is  not 
another  phase  of  the  feeling  of  cold;  neither  of  the  feelings  of  tem- 
perature is  to  be  explained  as  arising  out  of  feelings  of  pressure  or 
motion."* 

It  is  quite  evident,  too,  that  the  senses  restrain  and  limit 
the  powers  of  the  Ego.  As  observed  by  Plato,  "The  soul 
reasons  best  when  least  harassed  by  the  senses."  There 
are  evidently  more  "things"  than  senses,  as  is  shown  in 
many  ways;  notably,  in  the  world  of  effects  lying  just  out- 
side the  colors  of  the  spectrum,  and  of  which  our  senses 
afford  us  no  intimation.  Finally,  if  the  sense  organs  were 
the  result  of  outer  stimuli  there  could  never  happen,  as  is 
the  case  with  every  organized  being  now,  the  construction 
of  sense  organs  in  entire  absence  of  the  stimuli  held  to  be 
a  necessary  antecedent  to  their  appearance.  Every  child 

*Loc.  Cit. 


28  A    STUDY    OF   THE   SOUL. 

at  birth  comes  into  the  world  with  perfectly  formed  eyes 
which  have  never  known  the  stimulus  of  light,  and  so  on, 
although  in  a  lesser  degree,  with  all  its  sense  organs.  It 
is  no  explanation  to  say  that  these  have  been  primarily  so 
organized,  and  are  now  transmitted  by  heredity;  for  the 
very  first  step  in  their  acquirement,  no  matter  how  small, 
has  always  and  necessarily  been  taken  in  the  silence  and 
darkness  of  subjective  being.  The  outer  stimuli  have  only 
aroused  the  inner  response;  they  have  not  created,  nor  can 
they  create,  evolve,  nor  even  modify,  this. 

Of  course,  we  shall  be  met  here  with  the  materialistic 
assertion  that,  as  the  vegetable  kingdom,  even,  shows 
traces  of  nerve  functions,  and  as  this  proceeds  upward 
through  the  apparently  structureless  amoeba  to  the  highly 
complex  system  of  rnan,  increasing  in  conscious  function- 
ing with  each  increase  of  specialization,  sensation  is  thus 
plainly  a  product  of  evolution.  Yet  the  functions  of  the 
simplest  nervous  system  are  unique.  Nothing  in  the 
whole  curriculum  of  physical  science  affords  even  a  work- 
ing hypothesis  by  which  to  explain  or  account  for  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  conscious  factor.  Until  some  reasonable 
attempt  is  made  to  explain  how  motion  becomes  sensation, 
occult  theories  must  take  precedence;  especially  as  these 
are  in  full  accord  with  the  facts.  These  teach  that  the 
outer  sense  organ  is  constructed  by  and  because  of  the 
inner  impulse  of  consciousness  seeking  expression  in  form, 
in  order  to  bring  about  sense  relations  on  the  material  plane 
— the  only  relation  possible  at  the  present  stage  of  the 
soul's  becoming;  and  that  so  far  from  consciousness  arising 
mechanically  out  of  these  sense  organs,  they  actually 
limit  and  inhibit  conscious  manifestations.  There  is  a 
continuous  effort  for  more  consciousness  to  function  than 


THE   PHYSIOLOGICAL    EVIDENCE.  29 

the  sense  organ  affords  opportunity  for,  which  fact  is 
the  very  base  and  causal  antecedent  of  all  so-called  evo- 
lution, were  science  not  too  blind  to  perceive  it.  But  he 
who  starts  in  the  wrong  direction  travels  a  weary  journey; 
and  until  scientists  cease  to  seek  in  material  phenomena 
for  the  origin  of  consciousness  they  can  only  increase 
their  distance  from  the  truth  by  any  apparent  progress 
they  may  make. 

To  return:  Of  ideas  arising  out  of  sensations  it  can 
only  be  affirmed  that  they  are  modes  of  activity  of  the 
Ego,  not  of  any  conceivable  physical  juxtaposition  of  mole- 
cules. The  laws  governing  the  association  of  ideas  are  to 
be  found  in  the  nature  of  the  soul  itself.  They  can  not  be 
derived  from  any  known  behavior  of  so-called  physical 
atoms.  They  are  sui  generis;  and,  while  undoubtedly 
correlated  with,  do  not  nor  can  not  arise  out  of,  the  molec- 
ular activities  of  the  brain  because  of  the  impassible  gulf 
shown  to  exist  between  motion  and  sensation.  Their 
origination  is  inexplicable  unless  we  admit  the  presence 
of  an  observing  entity,  or  soul.  Ideas  can  not  associate 
themselves;  and  while  they  may  arise  semi-mechanically 
in  an  idle  brain,  the  case  is  quite  different  when  the 
aroused  Ego,  through  its  will,  asserts  not  only  what  ideas 
shall  arise  in  the  mind,  but  the  manner  of  their  association 
as  well. 

All  material  ideas  having  their  root  in  sensations  are 
conscious  relations  of  the  Ego  to  the  material  plane,  con- 
ditioned upon  its  material  organ.  They  are  in  no  way 
similar  to  the  Ego's  consciousness  of  self,  or  of  its  own 
being.  The  mind  or  thinking  Ego  never  applies  the 
terms  of  sensation  arising  out  of  its  relations  with  exter- 
nal nature  to  its  own  being;  it  never  thinks  of  itself  as 


30  A    STUDY    OF    THE    SOUL. 

"large"  or  "small,"  or  as  "hot"  or  "cold."  Nothing  could 
be  more  definite  than  the  line  drawn  between  its  own  na- 
tive and  proper  functions  and  those  arising  out  of  its  as- 
sociation with  the  sense  organs  of  the  body.  And  so  en- 
tirely dependent  is  sensation  upon  the  soul  that  clear 
vision  and  acute  hearing,  etc.,  depend  for  their  nicety  not 
upon  perfect  sense  organs — though  these  are  necessary 
accessories, — but  upon  a  clear  mental  interpretation  of 
what  is  seen  or  heard. 

Again,  if  consciousness  were  a  transmutation,  in  some 
inconceivable  manner,  of  molecular  into  psychic  activities 
within  the  brain,  then  there  ought  to  be  both  a  specializa- 
tion of  nerve  substance  and  a  constant  ratio  between  the 
brain  and  mind.  But,  as  Prof.  Ladd  states: 

'  'So  far  as  we  know  anything  about  the  particular  molecular  activi- 
ties of  the  central  nervous  system  which  are  most  directly  connected 
with  the  phenomena  of  consciousness,  they  do  not  differ  essentially 
from  other  molecular  activities  of  this  system  not  thus  connected 
with  consciousness.  The  chemical  constitution  and  structural  form 
of  the  nerve-fibers  and  nerve-cells  of  the  brain  do  not  differ  from 
those  of  the  spinal  cord  in  any  such  respect  as,  of  itself,  to  account 
for  the  difference  in  the  relations  in  which  the  two  stand  to  conscious 
mental  states.  They  do  not  so  differ  even  from  the  molecules  which 
enter  into  the  living  plant  or  animal,  of  much  lower  species,  mentally, 
than  man."* 

Thus  there  is  evidently  no  physical  evolution  of  the 
ganglionic  cells  after  they  have  reached  a  certain  point. 
The  most  profound  philosopher  is  using  cells  of  the  same 
kind  to  relate  him  to  sensuous  existence  as  his  Darwinian 
"cousin,"  the  ape.  There  ought  to  have  been  a  further 
and  most  marked  specialization  of  form  and  structure  if 
mental  activities  had  been  evolved  from  increasing  nerv- 

~Loc.  Cit. 


THE   PHYSIOLOGICAL   EVIDENCE.  31 

ous  complexities.  Instead  of  this,  there  is  only  an  en- 
tirely relative — not  absolute — increase  in  the  amount  of 
these  cells.  Is  it  not  evident  that  "gray  matter"  is  only 
the  pigment,  as  it  were,  with  which  the  ape  makes  his 
feeble  conscious  daubs,  while  man  produces  magnificent 
paintings  because  the  pigment  in  his  case  is  in  the  hands 
of  superior  intelligence  ? 

There  is  often,  too,  the  most  marked  divergence  between 
mental  and  physical  evolution.  The  human  child  comes 
into  the  world  perfectly  mindless  as  far  as  anything  be- 
yond reflex  action  is  concerned,  yet  it  is  possessed  of  a 
most  perfect  and  elaborate  nervous  system,  ufar  surpassing 
that  of  the  most  intelligent  adult  animal."  Where  is  the 
mental  activity  which  ought  to  have  unavoidably  accom- 
panied this  physical  evolution,  if  the  one  process  arises 
out  of  the  other?  In  the  first  year  of  the  child's  life, 
mental  activity  makes  the  most  wonderful  strides,  running 
far  ahead  of  its  supposed  physical  source.  The  same  in- 
equality attends  their  relations  throughout  life.  Especi- 
ally is  it  marked  in  old  age,  where,  long  after  the  physical 
has  ceased  to  progress,  and  is  even  rapidly  retrogressing, 
the  mind  retains  all  its  pristine  vigor.  Of  course,  this  is 
seen  only  in  cases  of  men  who  have  lived  a  mental  life.  A 
man  who  has  passed  his  existence  as  an  ambulating  vege- 
table decays  like  one;  he  has  no  mind  to  shine  forth 
amidst  the  ruins  of  his  body.  But  the  presence  of  a  vigor- 
ous mentality  connected  with  great  physical  decrepitude  in 
but  one  case  proves  its  possibility  in  all.  Cases  of  illness 
with  mental  vigor  are  in  point  here — in  fact,  many  dis- 
eases, by  refining  and  subduing  animality,  actually  in- 
crease mentality.  Of  course,  there  is  a  golden  mean,  and 
bodily  age  or  disease  to  the  point  of  cutting  off  the  Ego's 


32  A   STUDY   OF   THE   SOUL. 

hold  upon  its  sense  organs  must  be  followed  by  their  ceas- 
ing to  give  evidence  of  its  presence.  In  such  cases  men- 
tal decrepitude  apparently  follows  upon  the  physical. 
But,  as  already  pointed  out,  there  can  be  no  argument 
drawn  from  this  intimate  dependence  upon  the  body  by 
the  soul  for  its  conscious  relations  with  this  plane  against 
its  actual  and  independent  existence.  Every  entity  in 
nature  is  dependent  upon  other  entities;  the  very  cells  of 
man's  body  are  made  up  of  countless  lives,  having  their 
own  life  history  beyond  and  outside  of  this  association, 
upon  which,  nevertheless,  they  entirely  depend.  The  Ego 
within  the  body  shows  more  numerous  and  important 
phenomena  to  entitle  it  to  be  claimed  as  a  real  unit  entity 
than  do  any  or  all  physical  phenomena  on  the  part  of  the 
latter;  and  if  either  is  to  be  declared  non-existent,  it  must, 
by  all  the  laws  of  logic,  be  the  body,  and  not  the  soul. 

But  the  crowning  physiological  argument  in  favor  of  a 
soul  is  in  the  nature  of  consciousness  itself,  and  that,  as 
has  been  pointed  out,  all  its  higher  spiritual  activities  can 
neither  be  connected  with  any  definite  material  organ 
nor  proven  to  arise  out  of  any  conceivable  mode  of  mole- 
cular motion  within  the  brain. 

"For  all  the  higher  spiritual  faculties,"  says  Lotze,  "which  consist 
in  judgment  of  the  relations  of  given  conceptions,  we  neither  know 
how  empirically  to  demonstrate  a  definite  bodily  organ,  nor  should 
we  know  how  to  conceive  precisely  what  such  an  organ  could  con- 
tribute toward  the  solution  of  the  most  essential  part  of  the  problem 
— that  is,  the  pronouncing  of  the  judgment  itself.  It  is  conceivable, 
on  the  other  hand,  that  these  higher  activities  might  presuppose  the 
complete  and  clear  representation  of  the  content  about  which  the 
judgment  is  to  be  passed,  and,  consequently,  also  the  undisturbed 
function  of  those  organs  which  contribute,  first,  to  perception  by  the 
senses;  then  to  its  reproduction  and  combination  with  other  percep- 


THE  'PHYSIOLOGICAL    EVIDENCE.  33 

tions;  and,  finally,  to  the  appropriate  attachment  of  feelings  of  value 
to  each" of  them."* 

Yet  this  "  clear  representation  of  the  content  about 
which  the  judgment  is  to  be  passed"  must  not  be  con- 
ceived of  as  taking  part  in  the  judgment  itself.  This 
would  land  us  in  the  materialistic  absurdity  of  supposing 
that  all  the  activities  of  consciousness  were  only  the 
product  of  the  molecular  associations  concerned  in  their 
representation.  As  well  try  to  identify  the  bile  as  a  real 
physical  secretion  of  hypochondria,  or  tears  as  liquid  sor- 
row. 

In  this  connection,  too  much  stress  can  not  be  laid  upon 
the  importance  of  the  unity  of  consciousness  (before  re- 
ferred to),  of  the  Ego,  or  soul.  All  our  mental  faculties  are 
but  modes  of  its  behavior.  Its  presence  and  native 
powers  are  demonstrated  by  its  phenomenal  activities.  It 
would  be  less  unphilosophic  to  deny  the  existence  of  elec- 
tricity than  of  the  center  of  consciousness  at  the  base  of 
the  soul;  for  all  we  know  concerning  the  former  is  drawn 
entirely  from  its  objective  phenomena,  while  of  the  latter 
we  have  in  addition  to  these  its  subjective  phenomena  as 
well.  And  although  the  mental  states,  perceptions  and 
sensations  may  be  and  are  innumerable,  they  are  alike  re- 
ferred to  the  one  subject — the  "I"  upon  which  they  all  rest. 
Is  it  a  thinkable  proposition  that  the  whole  possible  gamut 
of  conscious  experiences  could  be  thus  unified  in  a  subject 
of  them  all  without  the  real  and  actual  existence  of  that 
subject  ? 

"To  have  a  variety  of  changing  states  attributed  to  it  as  the  subject 
of  them  all — this  is  to  demonstrate  in  consciousness  a  claim  to  real 
being.  Unchanging  rigidity,  the  permanence  of  the  mathematical 

*Loc.  Cit.,  p.  558. 


34  A   STUDY    OF    THE   SOUL. 

point  or  of  the  material  atom,  on  the  supposition  that  the  latter 
undergoes  no  interior  changes  whatever,  if  such  rigidity  and  perma- 
nence anywhere  exist,  constitutes  no  claim  to  the  title  of  real  being. 

' '  The  soul  exists  in  reality,  above  all  other  kinds  of  being,  because 
it  alone,  so  far  as  we  know  on  good  evidence,  knows  itself  as  the  sub- 
ject of  its  own  states;  or,  indeed,  knows  the  states  of  which  it  is  the 
subject  as  states  belonging  to  itself.  But  its  law  is  that  of  develop- 
ment; and,  unlike  all  'things'  which  are  subjects  of  various  kinds  of 
evolution,  so  called,  the  soul  can  recognize  the  law  of  its  own  being. 
When,  therefore,  we  are  asked  what  the  mind  really  is,  we  can  re- 
spond by  telling  what  it  comes  to  be  as  the  result  of  its  unfolding 
under  the  fixed  conditions  of  its  native  powers.  But  these  'powers' 
cannot  be  called  native,  as  though  they  were  actual  achievements  of 
the  mind's  inborn  faculties,  or  separate  forms  of  energy  inherent  in 
it,  after  the  analogy  of  the  forces  said  [somewhat  unintelligibly,  it 
must  be  admitted,]  to  be  'inherent'  in  the  atom. 

"But  we  do  not  define  the  nature  of  any  real  being  simply  by  stat- 
ing how  it  appears  and  behaves  in  its  most  germinal  and  undeveloped 
form.  The  tree  explains  the  seed;  the  adult  bird,  the  egg;  the 
character  of  the  highly  differentiated  product  must  be  studied  in 
order  to  know  the  full  description  of  the  energies  that  are  potential 
in  the  simple  stages.  It  is  an  undoubted  fact  that  the  mind  [soul] 
has  a  history  in  each  individual  case;  and  in  each  case  such  history 
is  a  development.  This  self-recognizing  unity  of  development  which 
belongs  to  the  mind  is  a  striking  proof  of  the  validity  of  its  claim  to 
be  considered  a  real  being.  As  the  being  .which  acts  and  knows  it- 
self as  acting,  which  is  acted  upon  and  knows  itself  affected,  which 
is  the  subject  of  states  and  itself  attributes  these  states  to  itself, 
which  develops  according  to  a  plan  and  so  remembers  and  compre- 
hends the  significance  of  the  past  states  that  it  can  recognize  the  fact 
of  its  own  development — as  such  a  being  the  mind  [soul]  is  more  en- 
titled to  consider  itself  'real'  than  to  consider  real  any  of  the  various 
objects  that,  immediately  or  indirectly,  appear  before  it  in  the  course 
of  its  history."* 

*Loc.  Cit.,  p.  680. 


THE   PHYSIOLOGICAL    EVIDENCE.  35 

There  is  still  another  faculty  of  the  mind  which  is,  if 
possible,  even  more  undiscoverable  in  and  unrelated  to 
any  definite  physical  basis  than  those  heretofore  consid- 
ered. This  is  that  aspect  or  phase  of  consciousness 
known  as  the  Feelings.  Just  what  feeling  consists  in 
escapes  definition.  It  is  an  innate,  underived  power 
of  consciousness.  It  accompanies  all  sensation  and  all 
ideation,  while  it  itself  may  be  and  often  is  experienced 
independently  of  any  other  conscious  state.  It  is  there- 
fore, upon  this  plane  at  least,  a  basic  aspect  evidently  of 
consciousness,  if  not  the  very  essence  of  this  itself.  For 
all  sense  of  personal  identity  may  be  lost,  as  in  chloroform 
narcosis;  all  thought  may  cease,  as  in  yoga  or  other  con- 
centration; all  will  may  be  suspended,  as  in  the  passivity 
of  mediumship;  or  these  may  be  annulled  or  suspended 
together  in  moments  of  terror,  surprise,  joy,  or  pleasure. 
Yet,  untouched  by  all,  burns  the  steady  light  of  a  con- 
scious center  which  feels  that  it  exists,  or,  rather,  that  it  IS. 
That  feeling  is  related  to  this  plane  by  the  sense  organs 
is  evident.  That  it  is  modified  as  to  its  states  by  these, 
follows  as  a  necessary  corollary,  else  there  would  be  no 
reason  for  or  even  possibility  of  the  association;  but  that 
it  arises,  de  novo,  out  of  any  possible  combination  of 
merely  fortuitous  molecular  activities  is  simply  absurd. 
It  measures  all  sensation,  as  to  whether  it  is  painful, 
pleasurable,  or  neutral  (if  such  a  state  can  exist);  it 
equally  accompanies  thought,  and  classifies  this  by  its  own 
inherent  analytical  powers  as  belonging  to  or  connected 
with  one  or  other  of  the  higher  activities  of  the  mind,  such 
as  imaginative,  religious,  moral,  esthetical,  etc.  It  binds 
all  the  other  faculties  of  the  mind  into  an  unity  such  as  is 
unexplainable  except  as  the  conscious  functioning  of  a 


36  A    STUDY    OF   THE    SOUL. 

self-conscious  Ego.  Feeling  accompanies  all  possible  ex- 
perience. Whether  one  hate  or  love,  whether  he  live  in 
intellectual  realms  or  those  of  sensuous  emotions,  feeling 
accompanies  each  state  so  faithfully  that  the  only  explana- 
tion of  this  is  that  it  is  the  presence  of  a  self-conscious 
soul,  exercising  an  underived  and  underivable  power  in- 
nate in  consciousness  itself,  and  hence  a  ray  from  or  an 
aspect  of  the  Causeless  Cause,  in  its  finite  manifestation. 
All  the  evidence  thus  adduced  to  prove  the  presence  of 
a  soul  as  a  necessary  deduction  from  physiological  phe- 
nomena must  not  be  understood  as  asserting  or  even  in- 
dicating that  this  soul  is  capable  of  being  analyzed  and  its 
nature  explained,  because  we  can  prove  its  existence. 
There  is  no  phenomenon,  nor  entity,  nor  being  in  the 
universe  which  does  not  at  last  escape  analysis  by  disap- 
pearing in  the  great  Unknowable  Source  of  All,  the 
Causeless  Cause.  But  it  would  seem  the  height  of  un- 
philosophic  reasoning  to  admit  the  reality  of  the  fleeting 
and  illusionary  beings  which  constitute  our  bodies,  to- 
gether with  their  environments,  and  then  to  deny  the  real 
existence  of  the  conscious  and  permanent  base,  the 
Knower,  Observer  and  Recorder  of  this  illusory  experi- 
ence. An  Unknowable  must  always  be  admitted  as  an 
ultimate  factor;  the  finite  can  never  hope  to  contain  or 
measure  the  Infinite,  but  we  must  beware  that  in  our 
ignorance  we  do  not  relegate  to  this  Unknowable  prob- 
lems which  belong  only  to  the  Unknown,  and  which  it  is 
vital  to  our  progress,  and  even  our  very  existence,  that 
we  discover.  To  this  Unknown  which  must  be  discovered 
belong  evidently  inquiries  such  as  we  have  been  consider- 
ing, as  well  as  all  phenomena  which  relate  to  the  existence 
of  the  soul,  the  modes  of  its  behavior,  the  things  which  re- 
tard, prevent  or  accelerate  its  progress  through  the  Cycle 
of  Necessity  in  which  it  has  its  present  being. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE     PSYCHOLOGICAL     EVIDENCE     OF     THE 
EXISTENCE    OF    THE    SOUL. 

TN  the  preceding  chapter  attention  has  been  paid  to 
JL  the  evidences  of  a  soul  in  the  psycho-physiology  of  the 
waking  state,  or  that  of  normal  consciousness.  No  refer- 
ence was  had  to  the  large  and  fertile  field  consisting  of 
man's  dreaming  consciousness,  together  with  the  allied 
phenomena  of  trance,  hypnotism,  clairvoyance,  and  super- 
sensuous  states  generally. 

It  is  evident  that  if  there  be  a  psycho-physiology  of  the 
waking  state,  there  must  also  be  one  of  sleep.  As  this 
occupies  one-third  of  our  entire  existence,  it  cannot  be 
safely  ignored  in  any  psychological  investigation.  It  is 
hardly  reasonable,  in  view  of  the  wonderful  utilization  of 
every  opportunity  by  nature,  to  infer  that  sleep  is  only 
intended  for  that  bodily  rest  and  recuperation  to  which  it 
has  been  assigned  by  science.  Furthermore,  the  so-called 
abnormal  phenomena  of  trance,  clairvoyance,  thought 
transference,  etc.,  representing  a  large"  unclassified  residu- 
um" of  psychic  phenomena,  have  a  most  important  bear- 
ing upon  the  question  of  human  consciousness  functioning 
independent  of  the  body,  and  hence  upon  the  existence  of 
a  soul. 

There  are  also  further  facts  and  generalizations  to  be 
drawn  from  the  study  of  the  nature  of  the  relation  of  con- 
sciousness to  the  human  organism  in  particular,  and  to 
biological  evolution  in  general,  which  may,  perhaps,  be 
profitably  studied  in  connection  with  and  as  a  preface  to 


38  A    STUDY    OF    THE    SOUL. 

the  consideration  of  dreaming  and  other  supersensuous 
phenomena. 

Taking  up,  primarily,  then,  these  general  considerations, 
we  find  a  soul  directly  pointed  at  by  the  fact  of  self-con- 
sciousness. While  consciousness  of  some  degree  necessa- 
rily accompanies  every  step  of  evolutionary  development, 
in  man  alone  it  first  reaches  the  condition  of  self-conscious- 
ness, or  consciousness  of  consciousness.  Man  analyzes 
and  examines  his  own  consciousness.  Now,  analysis  re- 
quires two  factors — an  analyzer  and  the  thing  analyzed. 
Therefore,  self-consciousness  implies  most  conclusively 
that  man  has  become  at  least  dual  in  his  nature ;  that 
something  has  been  added  above  and  beyond  the  animal 
consciousness  (which  knows  no  "I")  of  the  kingdom  below 
him.  One  constituent  of  his  being  steps  aside  and  critic- 
ally examines  other  constituents.  Unless  his  conscious- 
ness is  dual  and  separable,  it  is  incapable  of  this.  No 
molecular  motion — the  materialistic  source  of  thought  and 
consciousness — can  isolate  itself  and  observe  the  mechan- 
ical details  to  which  -it  owes  its  own  existence.  Such  a 
process  is  inconceivable.  As  we  have  seen,  only  a  soul 
independent  of  its  physical  sense  organs  for  its  conscious 
existence  can  satisfy  the  conditions  of  the  problems  of  self- 
consciousness  and  self-analysis. 

Further  consideration  shows  us,  also,  that  self-conscious- 
ness does  not  exhaust  its  peculiar  and  proper  object, 
which  is  self.  If  consciousness  were  the  product  of  the 
chemico-vital  processes  going  on  within  the  body,  it  ought, 
as  the  mere  expression  of  this,  to  express  it  fully.  It 
would  be  a  simple  question  in  mathematics — a  case  of  two 
and  two  making  four.  Instead  <£f  this,  our  ordinary  con- 
sciousness finds  itself  occupying  a  body  of  which  it  knows 


THE    PSYCHOLOGICAL    EVIDENCE.  39 

next  to  nothing.  Our  ordinary  consciousness  take  no- 
tice. That  there  is  an  inner  consciousness,  or  soul,  and 
that  this  soul  is  intelligently  conscious  of  every  process 
going  on  within  the  body,  is  abundantly  proven  by  recent 
experiments  in  hypnotism.  This  state,  in  which  the  ordi- 
nary consciousness  is  suspended  to  a  greater  or  lesser 
degree  and  an  inner  permitted  to  function,  shows  that  a 
very  illiterate,  ignorant  person  will  display  a  familiarity 
with  the  anatomy  and  physiology  of  his  or  her  organism, 
and  a  recognition  of  diseased  conditions  together  with  a 
knowledge  of  the  remedies  necessary  to  their  alleviation  or 
cure,  far  exceeding  that  of  the  most  learned  and  experi- 
enced physician.  That  this  information  and  knowledge 
proceed  from  an  inner  source,  and  are  not  due  to  thought 
transference  or  suggestion  on  the  part  of  the  physician,  is 
proven  by  unsuspected  physical  conditions  thus  described 
having  been  verified  by  post  mortem.  This  strange  phe- 
nomenon can  only  be  accounted  for  by  admitting  to  man 
a  higher  consciousness  than  that  which  functions  on  the 
ordinary  or  waking  plane,  and  which  consciousness  can 
only  exist  as  the  functions  of  an  independent  Ego,  or  soul. 

It  is  true  that  self-prescribing,  etc.,  are  only  compara- 
tively low  planes  of  the  conscious  functioning  of  the  soul, 
but  this  does  not  diminish  their  real  significance.  The 
point  made  clear  by  them  is  that  normal,  waking  con- 
sciousness expresses  only  a  portion — a  very  small  por- 
tion, in  reality — of  the  conscious  powers  of  the  soul.  The 
fact  that  the  soul  is  superior  to  the  body,  and  its  conscious 
area  actually  limited  by  the  sense  organs  of  the  latter, 
is  thus  firmly  established. 

If,  also,  we  examine  the  relation  sustained  by  conscious- 
ness to  biological  processes  in  general  we  shall  find  that 


40  A   STUDY   OF   THE    SOUL. 

the  same  conditions  obtain.  The  manifestation  of  divine 
consciousness  in  physical  form,  which  constitutes  nature 
as  we  perceive  it,  is  likewise  limited  in  its  expression  by 
its  material  vehicle.  There  is  a  constant  struggle  on  the 
part  of  the  inner  consciousness  to  express  itself  more  fully 
and  harmoniously  than  the  "  matter"  with  which  it  is  as- 
sociated permits.  This  fact  is  the  sole  agent  in  and  the 
cause  of  all  evolution.  Both  man  and  nature  are  con- 
stantly trying  to  displace  this  movable  threshold  of  con- 
sciousness which  they  have  in  common.  This  threshold, 
the  point  of  unstable  equilibrium  in  nature,  is  the  battle- 
field wherein  every  contest  between  "  matter  and  spirit" 
takes  place.  Here  the  outer  form  is  slowly  modified  by 
the  continuous  efforts  of  the  inner  consciousness,  seeking  a 
more  perfect  vehicle  for  its  expression.  The  fact  that 
modification  is  possible  in  man  and  nature  prophesies  in 
both,  also,  unlimited  potentialities  of  future  development. 
And,  truly,  a  biological  process  is  only  possible  by  means 
of  a  higher  or  transcendental  consciousness  in  nature.  If 
we  take  any  division — the  vertebrates,  for  example — we 
shall  find  the  designing  idea  always  precedes  in  time  its 
evolution  in  matter.  The  intention  of  nature  is  plainly 
foreshadowed  in  the  notochord,  which  still  persists  in  some 
of  the  lower  vertebrates;  and  the  prophecy  of  this  insignifi- 
cant notochord  finds  its  realization  in  the  magnificent  elab- 
oration of  the  vertebral  column,  with  its  cranial  enlarge- 
ment, muscular,  nervous,  arterial,  lymphatic,  digestive,  and 
other  accessory  systems,  which  together  constitute  the 
body  of  the  being  declared  to  be  "  a  little  lower  than  the 
angels  in  heaven."  Yet  science  would  have  us  believe 
that  this  wonderful  result  is  due  alone  to  the  blind  groping 
of  natural  forces  under  the  impelling  influence  of  unintelli- 


THE    PSYCHOLOGICAL    EVIDENCE.  41 

gent  law!  Nay,  if  there  were  no  other  proof  of  there  be- 
ing a  higher  consciousness  in  nature  and  in  man,  it  is 
shown  beyond  all  doubt  by  the  very  facts  upon  which 
materialistic  science  chiefly  relies — those  of  evolution. 
No  building  was  ever  yet  constructed  whose  model  or  de- 
sign was  not  previously  present  in  the  consciousness  of  its 
architect,  and  no  biological  process  ever  took  place  which 
was  not  previously  present  in  the  mind  of  a  Higher  In- 
telligence. 

Evolution  continuously  displaces  the  threshold  of  con- 
sciousness in  nature  and  in  man.  And  biology,  also, 
shows  that  for  the  whole  of  organic  nature,  including  man, 
there  are  two  increasingly  unequal  divisions — that  part 
which  sense  organs  disclose,  and  that  portion  which  is 
transcendental  to  or  beyond  sensuous  perception.  For 
an  oyster  most  of  the  world  is  transcendental;  that  man's 
consciousness  is  very  much  widened  in  area  does  not  by 
any  means  imply  that  he  is  in  contact  with  the  whole  of 
nature.  Step  by  step,  the  higher  consciousness  has 
evolved  organs  capable  of  relating  itself  to  larger  and 
larger  areas  of  contact  with  external  things. 

The  design  in  each  instance  has  preceded  the  construc- 
tion of  the  thing  designed.  If  the  brain,  for  example, 
were  developed  by  blind  force  alone,  how  could  it  have 
been  adapted  for  future  needs  ?  Yet  all  the  functions  of 
the  human  mind,  all  its  god-like  faculties,  were  foreseen 
and  provided  for  in  anticipation  by  the  first  swelling 
which,  at  one  extremity  of  an  otherwise  indistinguishable 
line  of  nerve  substance,  prophesied  and  promised  the 
magnificent  display  of  will,  intellect,  reason,  emotion  and 
intuition  subsequently  enabled  to  manifest  through  the 
brain  of  a  Spencer  or  a  Shakespeare.  And  the  tin- 


42  A   STUDY   OF   THE   SOUL. 

broken  sequence  of  design  and  thought  lie  before  our 
eyes  all  our  lives,  yet  we  are  asked  to  believe  that  for- 
tuitous chance  caused  force  to  take  this  direction ;  that  all 
this  is  but  the  sum  of  the  molecular  and  chemical  action 
of  blindly  working  law ! 

This  movable  and  moving  threshold  of  conscious- 
ness, then,  appears  in  all  nature.  It  can  only  be  the 
result  of  two  causes.  Either  an  inner  and  a  higher  con- 
sciousness is  shaping  and  transforming  matter,  with  a  def- 
inite and  intelligent  end  in  view,  or  it  is  the  result  of 
blind  chance  working  under  the  despotic  need  of  unintelli- 
gent force.  And  if  we  are  compelled  to  admit  an  inner 
and  a  higher  consciousness  in  any  single  effort  of  nature, 
the  fortress  is  taken;  for,  step  by  step,  we  shall  be  forced 
to  admit  a  higher  consciousness  in  all ;  and  the  question 
as  to  whether  man  has  a  higher  consciousness,  or  soul,  is 
answered  by  the  biological  argument  in  the  affirmative. 
And  again  we  are  driven  to  the  conclusion  that,  since  this 
higher  consciousness  is  not  dependent  in  any  way  upon 
the  matter  which  it  shapes  to  further  its  ends — as  a  pot- 
ter might — for  its  continued  existence,  then  it  does  not, 
and  indeed  can  not,  die  upon  the  death  or  transforma- 
tion of  the  latter.  /On  the  contrary,  analogy  points  to  the 
fact  that,  as  a  man  wears  out  and  renews  his  body,  cell  by 
cell,  many  times  in  the  labors  of  a  life,  so  his  soul  must 
wear  out  and  renew  many  bodies  in  the  course  of  its  in- 
finite pilgrimage.  Here,  once  again,  then,  the  fact  of  and 
reason  for  reincarnation  meets  us  squarely  as  the  logical 
result  of  biological  necessities. 

Again,  the  evolution  of  sense  organs  and  the  widening 
of  consciousness  upon  this  plane  are  parallel.  Nor  is  it 
probable  that  man  will  evolve  any  absolutely  new  sense 


THE    PSYCHOLOGICAL    EVIDENCE.  43 

organ  which  will  relate  him  to  new  phenomena  or  facts  of 
nature.  But  this  is  <not  necessary,  since  those  he  has  are 
capable  of  almost  infinite  expansion  along  lines  they  now 
subtend.  And  that  no  new  physiological  organs  are  in 
process  of  evolution  points  plainly  to  the  inference  that 
future  development  must  be  in  psychic  or  mental  direc- 
tions. This  will  certainly  be  the  case  unless  we  refuse  to 
predicate  any  further  advance  as  possible  to  the  human 
Ego — a  conclusion  to  which  the  egotism  of  self-satisfaction 
is  very  prone. 

If  one  wears  blue  glasses  all  nature  assumes  a  blue  hue. 
Materialism  has  looked  at  the  universe  so  long  through 
material  lenses  that  it  has  become  spiritually  color  blind. 
It  also  confounds  the  condition  of  thinking  with  the  cause 
of  thought;  it  mistakes  the  physical  brain,  which  is  the 
battery  by  means  of  which  the  operator  beyond  transmits 
thought  messages  to  this  physical  plane,  for  the  creator  of 
that  which  it  merely  transmits.  It  is  exactly  the  same  as 
if  a  countryman  were  to  insist  that  the  instrument  which 
ticks  off  his  message  is  the  source  of  the  intelligence  dis- 
played. 

Self-consciousness,  then,  together  with  its  varied  func- 
tions, such  as  reflective  thought,  constructive  imagination, 
volition,  even  to  the  extent  of  deliberately  abandoning 
the  body  by  suicide-t-all  show  that  that  body  is  occupied 
and  controlled  by  a  soul  almost  infinitely  superior  to  it  in 
function  and  powers;  and,  as  a  necessary  corollary,  that  the 
soul  has  acquired  this  undoubted  superiority  by  an  almost 
numberless  series  of  reincarnations.? 

A  careful  examination  must  convince  any  one  that 
thought  comes  into  the  consciousness  ready  made;  that  is, 
that  we  do  not  consciously  create  it,  but  receive  it  as 


44  A   STUDY    OF   THE   SOUL. 

though  transmitted  to  us  from  some  source  outside  or  be- 
yond us.  From  a  perception  of  this,  poets  have  always 
claimed  to  be  inspired  by  a  "muse."  This  reception  of 
completed  thought  shows  plainly  that  the  physical  brain  is 
only  an  organ  to  relate  thought  to  the  physical  plane,  and 
not  to  create  it  in  any  sense  of  the  word.  The  whole  of 
nature's  so-called  creative  processes  are  simply  uncon- 
scious thought— -that  is,  unconscious  to  us.  Could  we 
attune  our  consciousness  to  that  of  the  creative  intelli- 
gences in  nature,  we  would  know  what  is  going  on  in  the 
mind  of  an  ant,  as  also  in  the  mind  of  a  flower  or  stone. 
And  that  the  soul  is  so  attuned,  in  a  degree  at  least,  is 
proven  by  the  fact  that  in  deep  hypnotic  states  it  knows 
nature's  thoughts  or  processes  going  on  within  its  own 
physical  organism,  and  can  and  does  recognize  and  pre- 
scribe for  diseased  conditions  therein.  This  is  just  in  ac- 
cordance with  what  must  be  predicated  of  soul,  which,  being 
independent  of  the  body  for  all  except  one  class  of  purely 
material  functions,  and  which,  passing  from  body  to  body 
by  means  of  reincarnation,  must  accumulate  an  amount  of 
conscious  experiences,  with  knowledge  and  wisdom  arising 
therefrom,  which  cannot  of  necessity  find  full  and  complete 
expression  in  any  one  body,  as  a  small  engine  is  insuffi- 
cient to  afford  full  expression  for  the  energy  of  a  series  of 
boilers.  To  turn  on  the  full  force  would  in  both  instances 
be  to  destroy  the  vehicle. 

Proceeding,  next,  more  directly  to  the  examination  of  the 
dreaming  and  other  abnormal  states  of  consciousness,  we 
note,  as  a  basic  parallel,  that  the  projection  of  images  dur- 
ing sleep  is  exactly  equivalent  to  perception  in  the  waking 
state,  both  placing  objectively  something  we  perceive  sub- 
jectively. A  tree,  for  example,  is  not  seen  actually  where 


THE    PSYCHOLOGICAL   EVIDENCE.  45 

it  is;  nor  is  its  size  nor  color  nor  any  of  its  attributes 
perceived  externally.  The  perception  is  entirely  internal ; 
the  location  and  definition  of  the  object  externally  is  an 
after  operation  belonging  to  experience  and  judgment. 
A  blind  man,  suddenly  restored  to  sight,  as  has  been 
done  by  operation,  is  at  first  utterly  unable  to  estimate  the 
distance,  perspective,  and  other  qualities  of  objects,  except 
as  the  result  of  painfully  acquired  experience,  in  which 
perception  plays  no  further  part  than  to  furnish  the  pri- 
mary data.  Therefore,  there  is,  ipso  facto,  nothing  in 
dreams  which  excludes  their  phenomena  from  the  domain 
of  actual  perception.  As  continuously  occurs  in  waking 
life,  these  perceptions  may  be  wrongly  interpreted;  but 
they  are  none  the  less  true  perceptions,  and  have  their 
psycho-physiology,  our  ignorance  of  which  is  no  warrant 
for  its  non-existence. 

Waking  consciousness  is  the  result  of  an  almost  infinite 
number  of  physical  stimuli  reaching  perception  and  rec- 
ognition by  means  of  the  sense  organs.  In  dream,  the  soul 
responds  to  stimuli  from  inner  and  more  spiritual  planes. 
The  senselessness  of  most  remembered  dreams  is  due  to  a 
mixing  of  the  waking  and  dreaming  states,  when  objective 
stimuli  are  partly  dramatized  on  the  subjective  plane,  and 
•vice  versa.  In  ordinary  dreams  all  stimuli  are  dramatized; 
thus  resembling  somewhat  a  play  where  the  actors  are 
limited  to  pantomime  for  the  expression  of  their  ideas. 
And  the  causes  of  the  dramatization  not  being  perceived, 
the  judgment  necessarily  rests  on  false  premises.  The 
waking  state  is  partly  objective  and  partly  subjective; 
dream  is  the  same — only  between  the  two  states  the 
threshold  of  consciousness  is  greatly  displaced.  In  the 
waking  condition  the  consciousness  is  engross'ed  by  the 


46  A    STUDY   OF   THE   SOUL. 

stronger  stimuli  of  physical  life,  and  the  subjective  thresh- 
old recedes  accordingly.  In  dream  the  objective  thresh- 
old recedes,  and  the  consciousness  responds  to  an  en- 
tirely different  class  of  stimuli,  of  a  subjective  nature.  It 
is  not  claimed  that  these  minor  stimuli  are  not  present  in 
the  waking  condition.  They  are;  but  are  crowded  out  of 
the  attention,  or  displaced  by  the  stronger.  They  resem- 
ble a  feeble  chord  in  music  so  lost  in  louder  and  higher 
pitched  ones  that  we  are  unaware  it  is  being  sounded. 
It  is  only  as  objective  stimuli  fade  or  are  suppressed  that 
we  can  become  conscious  on  subjective  planes.  In  both 
sleeping  and  waking  states  it  is,  of  course,  the  same  con- 
sciousness, but  responding  to  different  stimuli. 

If,  then,  the  physiology  of  dreams  carries  perception 
and  consciousness  to  the  dream  plane,  the  importance  of 
studying  this  and  its  allied  unconscious  (so  called)  con- 
ditions cannot  be  overestimated.  For  once  we  show  that 
ordinary  dream  and  the  higher  dream  states,  such  as 
somnambulism  and  trance,  are  merely  gradations  of  the 
same  consciousness  responding  to  new  stimuli;  we  not 
only  establish  the  fact  of  another  consciousness  than  the 
waking,  but  we  also  prove  that  this  consciousness  is  very 
greatly  superior  to  the  waking,  in  knowledge,  functions, 
and  power.  In  other  words,  we  prove  an  inner  Ego,  or 
soul. 

In  demonstration  of  this  connection,  if  we  pass  but  a 
single  step  above  the  ordinary  dream,  and  admit  signifi- 
cant dreams  as  possib^ — and  who  does  not  ? — we  are  in 
contact  with  a  consciousness  which  is  capable  of  forewarn- 
ing, or  prophecy — powers  far  surpassing  its  waking  capaci- 
ties. Again,  sleep-walking  is  but  the  dreamer  acting 
out  the  dramatization  of  his  own  dreams,  as  the  writer, 


THE    PSYCHOLOGICAL    EVIDENCE.  47 

who  was  in  youth  a  somnambulist,  can  personally  testify. 
Many,  if  not  all,  the  phases  of  natural  somnambulism  are 
so  plainly  identical  with  those  of  induced  somnambulism, 
or  the  hypnotic  states,  that  we  are  enabled  to  connect  these 
conditions  beyond  any  doubt.  And  in  the  hypnotic  or 
induced  somnambulism,  whether  self-induced  or  due  to 
the  will  of  another,  we  forge  the  last  and  strongest 
link  which  binds  the  waking  consciousness  to  one  almost 
infinitely  higher  than  itself,  which  is  yet  truly  its  own 
self,  only  functioning  above  and  beyond  the  limitations 
of  its  material  sense  organs. 

In  studying  dream,  as  the  very  lowest  yet  most  univer- 
sal of  these  states,  we  note  the  entrance  of  a  most  impor- 
tant factor,  or  the  use  by  the  dreaming  consciousness  of 
entirely  new  concepts  of  time  and  space.  It  is  a  well- 
known  and  admitted  physiological  fact  that  dreams  which 
on  the  waking  plane  would  require  years  of  time  for  their 
enactment  find  on  the  dream  plane  that  even  a  moment 
is  sufficient  for  the  dreaming  consciousness  to  appreciate 
them  in  their  most  minute  details.  Thus  De  Quincey  had 
one  dream  which  apparently  extended  over  some  sixty 
years,  but  which  actually  occupied  scarcely  as  many  mo- 
ments. Uxhill,  also,  on  three  successive  nights,  not  only 
saw  his  whole  life  pass  in  review,  but  appreciated  its 
moral  bearing.* 

Now,  the  fact  that  the  relation  of  the  thinking  Ego  to 
time  conceptions  is  changed  in  dream  is  one  whose 
importance  cannot  be  overestimated.  The  exact  speed 
at  which  objective  stimuli  are  transmitted  from  the 
periphery  to  the  brain  centers  is  well  known.  In  like  man- 
ner, the  time  required  by  the  consciousness  to  record 
visual  perceptions  is  also  subject  to  accurate  measure- 
*Du  Prel,  Philosophic  der  Mystic. 


48  A   STUDY    OF   THE   SOUL. 

ment,  as  has  been  pointed  out  by  Helmholtz,  Fechner, 
and  others.  Since  it  is  the  same  "I"  which  perceives  both 
in  the  waking  state  and  in  dreams,  and  since  perception 
in  the  waking  state  can  only  proceed  at  a  definite,  meas- 
urable rate  of  speed,  if  we  find  in  dream  this  same  "I" 
recording  perceptions  at  a  rate  a  million  times  greater 
than  that  which  its  physical  organ,  or  brain,  is  capable  of 
registering,  it  follows  that  it  can  not  be  using  this  phys- 
ical organ,  and  is  therefore  not  limited  to  the  latter  for  its 
manifestations  of  consciousness.  This  alone  proves  that 
we  possess  a  consciousness  independent  of  the  body,  and, 
therefore,  a  soul,  beyond  all  cavil  or  dispute. 

Of  the  nature  of  dreams  are  the  cases  of  partial  drown- 
ing, where  the  whole  life  of  the  individual  passes  in  review, 
to  its  most  minute  detail,  during  the  brief  interval  in  which 
the  higher  consciousness  is  permitted  to  function  through 
the  suppression  of  the  lower  by  the  physical  asphyxiation 
and  psychic  exaltation  which  accompany  the  act.  In 
the  same  category  are  the  well-authenticated  facts  of  the 
entire  suppression  of  pain  during  the  burning  of  both 
witches  and  martyrs.  Through  the  tremendous  psychic 
exaltation  upon  such  occasions,  the  consciousness  is  trans- 
ferred to  higher,  or  soul,  planes,  and  the  body  burns  with- 
out giving  the  soul  any  concern ;  it  feeling,  in  the  supreme 
arousing  of  its  faculties,  that  its  existence  is  not  depend- 
ent upon  its  body  in  any  degree. 

The  power  of  the  center  of  consciousness,  or  soul,  to  use 
differing  vehicles  for  its  manifestation  is  the  key  to  all  hyp- 
notic and  supersensuoUs  states.  It  is  their  only  rational 
explanation.  For  if  the  threshold  of  consciousness  is  dis- 
placed to  any  marked  extent,  or,  in  other  words,  if  the 


THE    PSYCHOLOGICAL    EVIDENCE.  -49 

center  of  consciousness  which  constitutes  the  human  soul 
uses  an  inner  vehicle,  the  new  stimuli  relate  it  to  such  unfa- 
miliar phenomena  that  it  often  seems  even  to  itself  to  be 
another  consciousness — to  belong  to  some  other  person. 
This  has  been  well  shown  by  the  experiments  of  Binet 
and  Janet,  in  jFrance.  In  these,  the  permitting  of  the  in- 
ner Ego  to  function  through  the  suppression  of  the  limiting 
sense  organs  by  hypnosis  caused  an  ignorant  peasant 
woman,  for  example,  to  so  widen  her  conscious  area  as  to 
refuse  to  believe  that  she  was  identical  with  the  stupid 
"  Janet"  of  her  ordinary,  unhypnotized  experience. 

This  non-recognition  of  the  functions  and  powers  of 
the  soul  accounts  for  most,  if  not  all,  the  cases  of  "spirit 
guides"  and  "controls"  in  mediums  and  hypnotics;  for 
the  ordinary  mediumistic  or  trance  " control,"  or  "guide," 
is  only  a  case  of  self-hypnosis,  where  a  dramatization  of 
the  inner  consciousness  takes  on  the  part  of  such  guide, 
adviser,  or  prevaricator,  according  as  the  medium  or 
hypnotic  rises  to  a  higher  or  lower  plane  of  his  or  her 
being. 

It  may  be  objected,  in  this  relation,  that  these  particular 
manifestations  of  the  powers  of  the  soul  are  morbid,  be- 
cause connected  with  morbid  conditions.  But  this  does 
not  follow.  As  well  hold  the  light  which  passes  through 
a  lens  to  be  abnormal,  and  not  really  light,  because  the 
process  of  polishing  and  shaping  the  lens  which  permits 
of  its  being  focused  is  unusual,  or  because  the  capacity 
to  focus  light  is  not  a  property  of  the  stone  in  its  natural 
condition. 

All  such  phenomena  must  be  carefully  studied,  analyzed, 
and  classified  by  science  before  it  can  impose  its  dictum 
upon  the  results  of  investigations  in  regions  which  it 


50  A    STUDY    OF    THE    SOUL. 

proudly  refuses  to  enter.  Nor  can  it  be  expected  to  lead 
investigation  or  thought.  It  has  always  been  the  un- 
relenting opposer  of  new  ideas,  as  the  new  ideas  in  their 
turn  have  always  been  the  deadliest  foes  of  the  old.  It 
was  scientific  authority,  as  expressed  in  a  little  body  of 
men,  who,  having  mastered  the  externals  of  existing 
thought,  and  thus  filled  the  measure  of  their  own  capacity, 
railed  when  Harvey  asserted  that  the  blood  circulated 
through  the  human  body  ;  when  Stevenson  foretold  the 
speed  and  usefulness  of  steam  vehicles;  and  so  on, 
trirough  a  long  list  of  similar  counts;  and  which  to-day 
looks  on  with  solemn  discontent  as  the  birds  float  through 
the  air  in  direct  violation  of  its  conceptions  of  the  'laws  of 
physics,  dynamics  and  gravitation.  For  the  same  force, 
applied  in  the  same  manner,  and  attached  to  the  same 
proportion  of  weight,  when  put  into  a  "  scientific"  machine 
refuses  to  fly.  And  yet  no  field  is  so  full  of  proofs  of 
the  existence  and  functioning  of  a  divine  soul  as  that 
found  in  the  marvelous  collection  of  facts,  and  deduc- 
tions of  design  and  intelligence  therefrom,  which  are  the 
result  of  scientific  inquiry. 

But  whether  or  not  man  has  a  soul,  it  is  evident  that 
he  exhibits  mental  and  spiritual  powers  which  can  not  be 
connected  with  nor  explained  by  his  material  organism. 
All  the  conscious  aspects  of  his  being  are  sui generis,  and 
not  derivable  in  any  manner  from  his  material  aspects. 
Yet  under  the  philosophic  axiom  that  any  law  must  neces- 
sarily be  universal  in  its  action  to  exist  at  all,  this  con- 
scious energy  which  he  exhibits  must  fall  under  the  same 
law  of  conservation  which  obtains  on  the  material  plane. 
And  this  conservation  of  mental  energy  requires  a 
mental  vehicle,  and  one  capable  of  passing  from  body  to 


THE    PSYCHOLOGICAL    EVIDENCE.  51 

body  upon  the  death  of  these;  else  the  mental  energy  of 
one  life  is  not  conserved  and  carried  over  to  the  next,  as  its 
true  conservation  demands.  Thus  a  reincarnating  soul  is 
directly  pointed  out  and  connected  with  the  body  by  the 
two  greatest  generalizations  of  modern  science — the  con- 
servation of  force  and  the  law  of  evolution.  For  either 
subjective  energy,  intellect,  emotion,  will,  etc.,  are  stored 
up  in  and  transmitted  under  the  law  of  force  conservation 
by  a  soul,  or  this  law,  as  well  as  that  of  evolution,  is 
violated.  Intelligence  can  only  be  conserved  by  intelli- 
gence, and  its  evolution  thus  lies  necessarily  along  its 
own,  or  subjective,  lines.  In  other  words,  the  cause  must 
be  equal  to  the  effect;  and  intelligence  can  only  be  the 
creation  of  and  transmitted  by  intelligence.  One  sees  at 
once  how  immense  must  be  the  waste  of  energy  manifest- 
ing as  intellect  or  intuition  if  the  process  of  its  evolution 
has  to  be  begun  anew  with  each  new  babe  born  on  earth, 
to  be  again  cut  short  by  death  when  perhaps  at  its  very 
highest  evolutionary  activity,  unless  that  energy  is  carried 
forward  from  personality  to  personality  by  means  of  the 
repeated  reincarnation  of  the  soul.  If,  then,  the  energies 
of  the  soul  obey,  as  they  must,  the  law  of  force  conserva- 
tion, reincarnation  becomes  an  absolute  necessity. 

There  is  another  point  overlooked  by  science.  For  in- 
telligence to  supervene  upon  unintelligent  matter,  under 
the  play  of  blind  force,  demands  as  great  an  effort  of  the 
imagination  and  faith  as  the  exploded  theological  theory 
of  creation  out  of  nothing.  In  the  face  of  this,  science 
has  ever  sought  to  find  the  source  of  intelligence  in  some 
nook  or  by-way  of  matter,  forgetting  that  matter  only 
shows  the  evidence  of  the  presence  of  intelligence,  not  its 
underlying  source.  The  key  to  the  confusion  lies  in  the 


52  A   STUDY    OF   THE    SOUL. 

fact  of  subconscious  thought,  which  is  none  the  less 
thought  because  acting  below  the  plane  of  self-conscious- 
ness. Thought  is  of  every  plane  in  the  Cosmos;  the 
very  stones  have  their  manasic  principle.  Thought  and 
organization  go  on  side  by  side  unconsciously  until  the 
plane  of  self-consciousness  is  reached,  when  man  sud- 
denly becomes  aware  of  both  a  thinking  and  a  conscious 
principle  within  him.  This  does  not  imply  that  either 
or  both  were  absent  on  the  planes  below.  Remember 
that  thought,  as  we  have  pointed  out,  comes  into  the 
mind  ready  made,  and  is  the  ideation  of  the  Higher 
Ego,  the  rationale  of  which  will  be  explained  in  the 
chapter  which  deals  directly  with  that  subject.  Mean- 
while, it  is  plainly  seen  that  the  soul  is  conscious  on 
lower  planes  by  self-prescribing,  etc.,  and,  in  varying 
degree,  upon  higher  ones  by  clairvoyance  and  prophetic 
vision. 

When  man's  consciousness  is  limited  to  the  coarser 
stimuli  transmitted  by  his  physical  senses,  it  can  only 
function  on  the  physical  plane.  In  this  condition  it  is 
termed  the  lower  Ego,  or  personality.  When  these  senses 
are  suspended  by  sleep,  trance,  or  death,  his  consciousness 
functions  on  interior  and  higher  planes  until  again  aroused, 
by  awakening,  in  the  one  case,  and  by  reincarnation 
in  the  other,  to  the  old  physical  stimuli.  This  latter  con- 
sciousness, which  passes  in  sleep  or  death  to  purely  spirit- 
ual planes,  we  term  the  Higher  or  true  Ego,  because  it  is 
not  limited  by  its  physical  envelope,  is  untouched  by  the 
changes  of  state  we  know  as  birth  and  death,  and  trans- 
mits its  constantly  increasing  increment  of  wisdom  and 
intelligence  from  body  to  body  by  means  of  its  reincarna- 
tion. The  threshold  of  physical  consciousness  is  the 


THE    PSYCHOLOGICAL   EVIDENCE.  53 

dividing  line  between  the  Higher  Ego  and  lower  person- 
ality. It  embraces  a  large  field  of  more  or  less  confused 
conscious  states  before  it  merges  into  the  pure  spiritual 
consciousness  of  the  Higher  Ego,  upon  the  one  side,  or 
into  the  purely  sensuous  consciousness  of  the  personality, 
upon  the  other.  As  the  physical  senses  and  sensitive- 
ness to  the  finer  vibrations  of  astral  matter  constitute  this 
threshold,  each  man  has  of  necessity  a  differing  conscious- 
ness both  of  Higher  Ego  and  lower  personality  from  all 
other  men.  Taken  together,  they  represent  the  sum  of  the 
wisdom  and  knowledge  acquired  throughout  the  entire 
series  of  his  rebirths,  or  reincarnations.  The  personal 
consciousness  is  limited  by  the  particular  body  it  is  in- 
habiting. The  body,  again,  is  the  result  of  the  law  of 
cause  and  effect,  running  through  the  affinities  which 
govern  its  selection,  and  which  Theosophy  terms  "karma," 
or  sequence,  or  the  unvarying  succession  of  cause  and 
effect  upon  all  planes,  physical,  pyschic,  and  intellectual. 

If  it  be  asked  why  man's  personal  consciousness  has 
not  yet  reached  the  point  where  he  is  sensible  of  these 
finer  forces,  it  is  answered  that  the  coarser  the  force  the 
quicker  the  evolution  of  the  organ  to  express  it.  The 
finer,  more  spiritual  forces  have  not  yet  had  biological 
time  to  evolve  organs,  especially  as  it  would  seem  that 
this  evolution  must  largely  consist  in  rendering  more 
delicate  and  sensitive  those  man  now  possesses.  By 
these,  the  eye  and  ear  are  not  so  much  referred  to  as 
analogous  organs  for  psychic  and  spiritual  perception, 
which  man  now  possesses — at  least  in  a  rudimentary  con- 
dition. 

But  the  time  will  come,  and  in  fact  is  now  here  for  cer- 
tain individuals  of  the  race,  when  clairvoyance,  thought 


54  A   STUDY    OF   THE   SOUL. 

transference,  intuition,  and  many  other  spiritual  faculties 
will  be  as  normal  as  is  sense  perception  at  present.  They 
are  simply  natural  faculties  of  man's  Higher  Ego,  or 
soul,  struggling  into  the  domain  of  self-consciousness  up- 
on this  plane.  In  this  soul,  or  Higher  Ego,  is  the  true 
individuality,  the  real  life,  and  consciousness.  The  per- 
sonality is  but  the  bundle  of  sense  organs  through  which 
we  gather  experience  and  wisdom  on  the  material  plane, 
which  is  our  present  area  of  activity.  The  Higher  Ego 
represents  all  that  we  have  become  since  we  assumed  con- 
trol of  our  own  destinies. 

The  personality  represents  the  amount  of  this  stored 
wisdom  which  any  particular  body  is  capable  of  express- 
ing; remembering  that  all  bodies  (sense  organs)  limit  con- 
sciousness, instead  of  creating  it.  But  this  limitation  falls 
under  the  universal  law  of  cause  and  effect,  and  is  there- 
fore in  each  life  brought  about  by  the  deeds  of  those  of 
the  past,  as  will  be  shown  in  the  proper  connection. 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE    EVOLUTION    OF    THE    SOUL. 

STUDY  of  the  evolution*  of  the  human  soul  implies 
and  necessitates  a  primary  examination  of  the  pro- 
cesses of  evolution  generally.  Man  is  but  a  factor  in 
nature — a  part  of  the  finite  expression  of  the  inexpressible 
Infinite — and  differs  only  in  degree  from  entities  both 
above  and  below  him  in  the  scale  of  being.  To  arrive  at 
his  basic  principles,  to  discover  the  modus  operandi  of  the 
law  of  evolution  under  whose  action  he  has  reached  his 
present  standpoint,  we  have  to  turn  to  the  universal 
cosmic  factors  which  are  equally  the  cause  of  man  and 
of  his  every  environment,  whether  material,  intellectual  or 
spiritual. 

Certain  recent  experiments  in  physics,  as  well,  also,  as 
studies  in  mathematics,  indicate  hitherto  unsuspected  facts 
concerning  natural  phenomena,  which  have  a  profound 
bearing  upon  our  conceptions  of  evolution.  For  instance: 
We  have  been  taught  by  modern  Western  science  to 
believe  that  force  is  most  active  and  most  potent  upon 
grossly  material  planes,  and  that  as  we  retreat  to  those 
more  subjective  it  becomes  less  and  less  potent,  until  when 
mental  or  thought  planes  are  reached  it  ceases  to  exist 
as  force  at  all.  Having  passed  the  uttermost  limits  of 
our  ability  to  pursue  or  detect  it  by  physical  means,  it, 

*The  human  soul  can  not  be  said  to  ' '  evolve, ' '  in  the  scientific 
acceptation  of  this  term,  which  is  one-sided,  as  is  most  materialistic 
nomenclature.  It  is  retained  because  convenient,  and  because  its 
real  meaning  will  be  made  clear  in  the  context. 


56  A    STUDY    OF   THE   SOUL. 

of  course,  no  longer  exists,  unless  we  ascend  to  its  higher 
retreats.  Naturally,  all  experiments  which  deal  with  the 
purely  physical  seem  to  warrant  this  conclusion ;  especially 
those  in  which  our  very  thoughts  have  been  measured  by 
molecular  vibrations,  expressed  in  a  rise  of  temperature 
of  the  superficies  of  our  brain,  and  which  expression 
becomes  more  and  more  faint  as  our  thoughts  become 
more  and  more  interior  and  subjective.  But  the  behavior 
of  water,  even,  when  changed  into  vapor  by  heat,  ought  to 
have  aroused  suspicion  that  higher  states  of  matter  con- 
tain greater  potencies  than  lower.  And  the  liberation 
of  "  inter-etheric"  force  by  Keeley,  backed  by  the  behavior 
and  potencies  of  electricity,  together  with  numerous  other 
phenomena,  show  us  that  what  we  have  been  in  the  habit 
of  considering  as  the  very  essence  of  force  is  only  the 
driftwood,  so  to  speak,  cast  upon  the  shores  of  the  great 
seas  and  oceans  of  potential  energies  in  which  we  have 
our  being. 

Force  being,  like  Substance  and  Consciousness,  an 
attribute  of  the  Absolute,  must  have  infinite  potencies. 
Hence,  it  logically  follows  that  the  nearer  we  penetrate  to 
Absolute  planes  and  eternal  states  of  matter  and  con- 
sciousness the  more  stupendous  and  inconceivable  be- 
come the  forces  which  have  there  their  normal  field  of 
activity.  Nothing  could  exceed  the  emptiness,  the  utter 
void,  in  our  conception  of  the  interstellar  or  ethereal  spaces 
lying  between  planets  or  suns.  "Ether"  has  become  a 
synonym  for  a  state  of  matter  which,  while  necessary  to 
account  for  certain  phenomena,  is  still  considered  so 
tenuous  that  it  is  practically  non-existent,  and  hydrogen 
gas  becomes  by  comparison  with  it  as  dense  as  iron.  Yet 
out  of  this  ether,  when  manipulated  by  knowledge,  ap- 


THE   EVOLUTION    OF   THE   SOUL.  57 

pears  an  energy  before  which  ajl  purely  physical  forces 
are  brushed  aside,  as  are  wisps  of  vapor  in  the  path  of  a 
cannon-ball.  The  only  reason  for  the  existence  and  rela- 
tive permanency  of  the  forces  and  matter  of  this  plane 
lies  in  the  fact  that  they  are  out  of  direct  relation  to,  and 
only  sustain  those  distantly  harmonic  with,  the  forces  of 
higher  ones;  that  for  astral,  ethereal  and  akasic  matter 
our  own  "  physical  basis  of  life"  is  practically  non-existent. 
The  ethereal  vibrations  play  through  our  earth,  our  bodies 
and  our  senses  even,  without  producing  any  effect  upon 
our  consciousness,  or,  as  far  as  analogy  permits  us  to  sup- 
pose, our  affecting  by  our  presence  the  consciousness  of 
entities  ensouled  by  this  higher  form  of  matter. 

Of  course,  this  earth  is  not  out  of  all  relation  to  inner 
states  of  matter  and  modes  of  force,  but  it  is  out  of  direct 
relation  thereto.  Physical  matter  is  the  production  of 
forces  having  their  origin  in  vibrations  upon  these  interior 
planes;  but  before  such  force  is  converted  into  physical 
terms  it  passes  through  many  gradations,  each  removing 
it  more  and  more  from  the  potencies  of  those  infinite 
store-houses  of  energy  from  which  the  Cosmos  springs 
into  being. 

Bearing  in  mind,  then,  that  force  becomes  more  and 
more  potent  as  it  retires  to  realms  which  to  us  are  more 
and  more  subjective,  we  can  approach  the  subject  of  evo- 
lution with  a  better  conception  of  the  nature  of  the  prob- 
lems to  be  solved.  For  evolution  is  not,  in  this  view,  the 
study  of  the  process  of  "creation  out  of  nothing" — the  task 
set  themselves  by  theologians  and  theology-biased  philos- 
ophers;— but,  rather,  the  method  by  which  the  Absolute 
or  Infinite  Force,  Matter  and  Consciousness,  limits  itself 
and  becomes  the  finite  as  revealed  to  man.  We  are  not 


58  A    STUDY    OF   THE   SOUL. 

troubled  at  all  by  the  insufficiency  of  the  Cause,  but  by 
the  apparent  limiting  in  time  and  space  of  the  effects  of  a 
necessarily  unlimited  Causeless  Cause.  One  thing  seems 
certain — that,  as  has  been  expressed  by  a  recent  writer,* 
"if  Infinite  Being  is  to  be  manifested  in  finite  existence,  it 
must  be  through  infinite  variations  of  the  finite."  The 
law  of  infinite  variation,  indeed,  would  seem  to  be  one  of 
the  methods  by  which  the  Infinite  expresses  itself  without 
lessening  its  own  infinity.  Another  means  by  which, 
from  our  point  of  view,  the  Absolute  and  Unconditioned 
becomes  the  finite  and  conditioned,  is  in  the  all-pervading 
and  unbroken  law  of  cycles.  In  some  form  or  degree, 
cyclic  activity  marks  all  existence  or  evolution,  from  that 
of  a  molecule  to  that  of  a  manvantara.f  Still  another  of 
these  basic  generalizations  which  have  their  common  root 
in  the  Unknowable  is  the  absolute  sway  of  Cause  and 
Effect  in  all  realms  of  nature,  from  the  highest  and  most 
super-spiritual  to  the  lowest  and  most  material.  It  is  a 
logical  conclusion  that  all  absolutely  unvarying  laws, 
modes  of  motion,  or  states  of  consciousness,  are  direct  as- 
pects of  the  Absolute ;  and  that  by  means  of  them  we  may 
approach  to  at  least  a  partial  conception  of  some  planes 
of  the  Great  Source  of  all  life  and  being.  Such  would 
appear  to  be  those  we  have  cited;  viz.:  Infinite  poten- 
tiality reflected  in  infinite  variation  of  the  finite;  Absolute 
permanency  of  Being,  shown  in  the  absolute  sway  of 
Cause  and  Effect;  and  Eternal  Duration  in  the  unending, 
universal  cycles  which  enable  Duration  to  manifest  as 
Time. 

^Geometric  Psychology. 

fManvantara — a  period  of  universal  objective  existence  followed  by 
an  equal  period  of  (to  us)  unknowable  subjective  existence. 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  THE  SOUL.          59 

To  the  above,  we  have  to  add  the  unavoidable  deduc- 
tion that  there  can  not  be  opposing  factors  in  the 
universe,  whether  existing  as  force,  matter,  or  conscious- 
ness; because  these  would  be  either  equal,  and  produce 
universal  inertia,  or  unequal,  in  which  case  the  greater 
must  necessarily  have  overcome  the  lesser  in  the  unthink- 
able durations  of  the  eternities  of  the  past.  An  early 
conception  of  the  importance  of.  this  simple  and  logical 
law,  that  unity  in  essence  must  underlie  every  manifesta- 
tion in  nature,  however  differentiated  and  opposed  such 
manifestations  may  appear,  will  clear  away  a  mass  of 
theological  rubbish  from  our  first  postulates,  at  the  very 
outset.  If  all  matter,  force,  and  consciousness  proceed 
from  unity,  even  though  that  unity  remain  for  us  an  Un- 
knowable Causeless  Cause,  still  it  effectually  excludes  the 
possibility  of  evil  as  such  from  the  cosmic  scheme.  Hence, 
Satans,  Ahrimans,  Beelzebubs,  or  Plutos  are  relegated  to 
realms  of  ignorance  and  fear  in  which  they  had  their  birth, 
and  good  and  evil  become  only  relative  aspects  and  planes 
of  the  play  of  the  absolute,  impersonal  law  of  Cause  and 
Effect. 

A  study  of  evolution  in  general,  then,  is  necessarily 
prefaced  by  the  admission  or  postulating  of  three  great 
Aspects  of  the  one  Unknowable  Root,  or  Causeless  Cause. 
These  are,  as  already  pointed  out,  Consciousness,  Sub- 
stance, and  Force.  Consciousness,  often  referred  to  as 
"  spirit,"  embraces  all  that  manifestation  of  the  Absolute 
which  we  term  subjective.  Substance  is  the  root  of  all 
matter  and  form,  or  the  Object*  side  of  nature,  while 
Force  or  Motion  relates  the  one  tq  the  other  and  causes 
all  the  bewildering  complexity  of  form  and  function  in  the 

*Cf.  Secret  Doctrine,  Vol.  I,  page  16. 


60  A   STUDY    OF   THE   SOUL. 

Cosmos.  The  absolute  potentialities  of  Consciousness, 
Force,  and  Matter  are  and  must  ever  remain  infinite  and 
unchanged.  Yet  the  degree  to  which  each  is  manifested 
in  successive  Universes  must  ever  remain  felative  and 
finite.  Hence,  all  the  vast  scheme  of  evolution  which  we 
perceive  in  nature  is  due  solely  to  the  correlations  and 
combinations  of  these  three  Immutable  and  Universal 
Bases.  We  can  not  say,  even  at  the  end  of  a  great 
manvantara,  or  the  duration  of  a  Universe,  that  any- 
thing has  been  added  to  the  sum  total  of  the  Force,  Con- 
sciousness, or  Matter  within  the  great  Mother  and  Con- 
tainer of  all— Space.  Only  their  mutual  relations  have 
been  somewhat  changed.  Consciousness,  which  before 
existed  as  an  undifferentiated  part  of  the  Whole,  has  ac- 
quired Self-Consciousness,  or  a  new  quality  or  potency; 
but  as  Consciousness  per  se  it  remains  unmodified.  So 
of  Force  and  Substance;  they  have  been  brought  into 
newer  and  perhaps  grander  correlations,  but  as  basic  po- 
tentialities they  remain  unaltered.  Nor  can  an  end  of 
this  change  of  relation,  or  evolution  as  it  appears  to  us, 
ever  be  predicated,  for  infinite  potentialities  of  variation 
require  infinite  time  for  their  manifestation.  A  dim  con- 
ception of  the  possibilities  of  changes  and  of  conscious  ex- 
periences which  never  had  a  beginning,  and  of  which  no 
end  can  be  predicated,  may  be  had  from  a  study  of  the 
law^of  permutation.  The  combinations  possible  with  two 
elements  are  but  two,  but  with  three  they  rise  £o  six;  with 
four,  to  twenty-four;  with  five,  to  one  hundred  and  twenty; 
and  so  on,  ever  increasing  until  we  are  driven  to  the 
recognition  that  an  infinite  series  of  atoms,  such  as  are  at 
the  base  of  physical  manifestation,  even,  must  be  capable 
of  infinite  combinations  and  correlations,  and  hence  re- 
quire infinite  duration  for  that  manifestation. 


THE    EVOLUTION    OF    THE    SOUL.  6 1 

Approaching  the  survey  of  evolution  from  its  material 
or  Substance  Aspect — the  only  one  recognized  by  modern 
science — we  may  obtain  a  relative  and  limited  idea  of  the 
manner  in  which  matter  takes  on  or  descends  into  object- 
ive form  by  the  following  illustration : 

Imagine  a  large  vessel  or  receptacle  filled  with  a  solu- 
tion of  some  salt  to  the  saturation  point  when  heated  to 
ioo°."  As  long  as  this  temperature  is  maintained  the 
solution  is  perfectly  transparent.  No  one  would  suspect 
any  solid  material  hidden  in  its  crystal  clearness.  But 
now  let  the  rate  of  vibration  be  changed  in  the  fluid;  let 
the  temperature  fall  to,  say,  60°,  and  out  of  that  which 
was  before  so  clear,  crystallizes  a  solid  mass  which  renders 
the  whole  solution  translucent,  opaque,  or  it  may  so  change 
its  mqlecular  relations  as  to  cause  it  to  become  a  solid. 

From  this  comparison  we  may  at  least  faintly  conceive 
of  that  which  transpires  within  the  Universe  at  the  dawn 
of  a  manvantara;  for  then  Space  may  be  likened  to  a 
clear,  transparent,  ethereal  fluid,  holding  in  potentiality 
the  future  Universe,  which,  so  to  speak,  crystallizes  out 
by  a  change  of  vibration  within  this  universal,  homo- 
geneous substance. 

If  we  imagine  matter  as  it  exists  upon  our  earth  to  pass 
into  greater  and  still  greater  degrees  of  attenuation  and 
dissociation — as,  for  example,  when  iron  becomes  gaseous 
— we  will  arrive  ultimately  at  a  state  in  which  it  is  evenly 
distributed  throughout  the  Cosmos,  and  subjected  to  con- 
ditions so  different  from  any  that  now  obtain,  or  at  least 
that  we  can  perceive,  that  we  can  no  longer  term  it  matter, 
but,  rather,  as  approximating  that  eternal  Substance,  its 
(to  us)  subjective  Root.  To  aid  in  forming  some  idea 
of  the  extreme  attenuation  and  molecular  dissociation  to 


62  A    STUDY   OF    THE    SOUL. 

which  matter  in  its  cosmic  condition  is  thus  subjected, 
it  is  necessary  to  remember  how  minute  the  specks  We 
know  as  planets  are  when  compared  to  the  space  in  which 
they  revolve.  The  old  illustration  of  Herschel  as  to  the 
immense  distances  involved  in  visible  space  may  aid  us 
here: 

Suppose  one  wished  to  construct  a  model  of  the 
solar  system  in  which  its  proportions,  though  reduced, 
would  be  accurately  preserved ;  and  that  for  this  purpose 
he  should  take  a  globe  two  feet  in  diameter  to  represent 
the  sun.  Then  the  earth,  reduced  to  a  corresponding  size 
and  in  its  proper  position,  would  be  represented  by  a  pea 
placed  at  a  distance  of  two  hundred  and  fifteen  feet  from 
the  globe;  Jupiter,  by  an  orange,  placed  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  away;  and  Neptune,  our  farthest  planet,  by  a  plum, 
at  a  distance  of  a  mile  and  a  quarter.  On  the  same  scale, 
Sirius,  one  of  the  brightest  fixed  stars,  would  be  removed 
to  the  distance  of  forty  thousand  miles,  so  that  it  would 
require  a  space  of  nearly  twice  the  entire  circumference 
of  the  earth  for  a  model  to  be  constructed  in  which  the 
earth  is  represented  by  a  pea!  Now,  Sirius  is  not  the 
nearest  star;  but  the  very  closest  one  to  our  sun — Alpha 
Centaur — is  20,000,000,000,000,000  of  miles  distant,  and 
within  at  least  one-third  of  this  vast  extent  of  space  our  sun 
and  his  little  band  of  planets  represent  all  the  visible  mat- 
ter, except  a  few  wandering  comets  and  systems  of  meteors. 

We  know  matter  in  three  states — solid,  liquid  and  gas- 
eous; and  the  experiments  of  Prof.  Crooke  prove  a  fourth 
state — that  of  "  radiant  matter" — as  demonstrable  to 
our  senses.  If  beyond  this  fourth,  or  radiant,  state  we 
could  imagine,  if  ever  so  dimly,  the  three  following  and 
still  higher  states,  recognized  and  taught  by  Theosophy, 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  THE  SOUL.          63 

we  would  have  a  dim  conception  of  that  original  Sub- 
stance out  of  which  the  material  portion  of  this  universe 
is  fashioned,  when  the  dawn  of  a  manvantara  awakens  it 
once  more  to  sentient  life. 

The  infinite  Universe,  then,  is  filled,  from  a  material 
standpoint,  with  that  which  holds  both  the  potency  and 
potentiality  of  matter.  It  also  holds  the  potentiality  and 
potencies  of  spirit,  or  consciousness;  being,  besides,  in 
its  aspect  of  ever-present,  indestructible  space,  the  arena 
of  that  force  which  we  know  to  be  equally  eternal  under 
its  objectivized  aspect  of  motion.  Thus,  at  the  dawn  of 
differentiation,  at  the  beginning  of  the  "out-breathing  of 
Brahm,"  or  the  manvantaric  activity  following  the  "  in- 
breathing" or  universal  pralaya,  three  hypostases  of  the  Ab- 
solute— potential  Matter,  potential  Thought,  and  poten- 
tial Force — are  held  concealed,  in  some  inconceivable  way, 
within  the  bosom  of  space,  as  our  salt  was  also  concealed 
within  the  solution  which  we  have  used  as  a  symbol. 
And  the  material  side  of  the  Unknowable  Triad  is  prob- 
ably concealed  in  a  precisely  similar  manner,  or  by  the 
rate  of  its  vibration.  For  Theosophy  accepts  the  matter 
of  science,  and  its  force,  or  motion,  also;  but  it  avers, 
most  uncompromisingly,  that  the  former  is  molded  and 
shaped  by  the  latter  through  a  third  eternal  predicate, 
Intelligence,  under  the  aspects  of  Consciousness  and  Idea- 
tion. Hence,  when  one  great  rhythm  of  the  Universe  has 
expended  its  original  impetus  in  a  manvantaric  objectiva- 
tion,  and  has  returned  into  the  Silence  and  Darkness  of 
Non-Being  until  again  at  the  initial  moment  of  another 
outward  flow  of  the  never-ceasing  Motion,  at  this  point 
Intelligent  Beings  assume  control,  and,  by  ideative  Will, 
guide  the  vibrations  of  the  eternal  motion,  so  that  matter 


64  A    STUDY    OF    THE    SOUL. 

capable  of  exhibiting  form  appears  as  a  consequence  of 
this  modification  or  change  of  vibration  in  the  eternal  Mo- 
tion. Yet,  as  Absolute  Force  or  Motion  can  not  be 
added  to  nor  diminished,  so  this  modification  of  vibration 
must  eventually  be  overcome,  and  the  Universe  return  to 
its  original  condition,  to  again  re-emerge  in  form  when  the 
reactionary  swing  of  the  pendulum  of  eternity  has  de- 
scribed its  arc,  and  so  permits  v of  another  effort  on  the 
part  of  these  Creative  Intelligences.  Thus  the  law  of 
cycles  controls  even  this  inconceivable  period  which  meas- 
ures the  duration  of  an  Universe.  Like  the  intermittent 
glow  of  a  fire-fly  to  one  who  watches  the  flight  of  the  in- 
sect must  appear  even  these  vast  successions  of  Universes 
to  Intelligences  behind  the  Veil  of  Isis,  who  remain  for- 
ever untouched  by  any  dissolution  of  form.  At  the  out- 
ward flow  of  the  eternal  Motion,  for  them,  nebulae,  suns 
and  systems  blaze  into  a  fleeting  existence;  at  the 
"  inbreathing  of  Brahm"  all  disappear;  and  this  in  an  eter- 
nal succession  of  exact  cycles.  These  cycles,  so  transitory 
in  eternity,  are  so  vast  in  time  that  reason  reels  in  the 
effort  to  conceive  of  them.  The  nature  of  the  initiatory 
impress  of  these  Formless  Creative  Intelligences  from  its 
conscious  aspect  is  seen  in  the  unerring  selective  "affin- 
ities" of  atoms;  from  its  force  aspect  it  is  undoubtedly  a 
modification  or  change  of  vibration. 

As  the  result  of  this  primal  modification  of  vibration, 
matter  throughout  the  Universe  assumes  a  state  which  the 
Book  of  Dzyan,  quoted  in  the  Secret  Doctrine,  describes 
as  resembling  "  milk-white  curds."  These  curds,  which 
must  be  conceived  of  as  infinitely  more  attenuated  than 
the  ether  of  science,  are  next  brought  by  the  agent 
through  which  cosmic  intelligences  act  upon  cosmic 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  THE  SOUL.          65 

matter,  known  in  Eastern  Occultism  as  Fohat,  into  forms 
described  as  "  fiery  whirlwinds,"  or  that  in  which  mag- 
netic attraction  alone  is  controlling  the  vibration.  Gravi- 
tation, representing  a  response  to  much  lower  rates  of 
vibration  and  coarser  aggregation  of  particles,  o~nly  acts 
after  the  finer  magnetic  forces  have  prepared  the  neces- 
sary conditions  permitting  this  form  of  attraction  and  re- 
pulsion to  obtain 'a  foothold  among  the  sentient  atoms. 
This  stage  in  the  evolution  of  matter  up  through  the  do- 
main of  that  force  we  hazily  describe  as  "  magnetic,"  into 
the  field  where  the  lower 'activity  of  gravity  obtains,  may 
be  traced  in  the  form  of  some  nebulae,  whose  arrangement 
of  matter  still  shows  evidences  of  the  original  "whirlwind" 
force  in  the  magnetic  disposition  of  their  contents.* 

From  the  time  of  the  evolution  of  matter  into  the  nebu- 
lous condition,  the  after  processes  are  comparatively  easy 
to  trace.  Indeed,  many  of  the  subsequent  evolutionary 
strides  of  Fohat  are  plainly  visible  within  the  limits  of  our 
own  little  solar  system.  The  differing  degrees  of  density 
from  Neptune  to  Mercury ;  the  state  of  matter  in  the  sun ; 
the  dead  moon,  now  in  a  minor  pralaya,  or  rest;  the 
comets  which  occasionally  visit  our  region  of  space — all 
illustrate  degrees  of  differentiation,  and  different  states  of 

*One  of  the  first  discoveries  made  by  means  of  the  Lick  telescope, 
at  Mt.  Hamilton,  California,  was  this  "whirlwind"  disposition  of  the 
matter  ot  some  of  the  nebulae.  Prof.  Holden,  in  an  article  -contrib- 
uted to  a  San  Francisco  journal,  announced  that  "the  arrangement 
of  matter  in  some  of  these  nebulae  was  such  as  to  indicate  that  some 
other  force  than  gravitation  had  been  concerned  in  its  production." 
Science  thus  most  unexpectedly  confirmed  the  assertion,  made  some 
time  previously  by  Madame  H.  P.  Blavatsky,  to  the  effect  that 'if  sci- 
entists had  instruments  sufficiently  powerful  to  penetrate  and  resolve 
certain  nebulae  they  would  discover  that  gravitation  was  not  the 
universal  force  they  suppose  it  to  be. 


66  A   STUDY    OF    THE    SOUL. 

that  which,  known  to  us  only  by  its  external  attributes 
and  not  by  its  inner  essence,  we  term  matter. 

Yet  this  Material  Aspect  of  evolution  is  incomplete,  and 
indeed  incomprehensible,  except  in  the  light  of  its  Con- 
scious Aspect.  This  brings  us  to  the  direct  consideration 
of  those  High  Intelligences  from  whom  proceed  the  wis- 
dom to  plan  and  the  energy  to  stamp  that  original  im- 
press upon  the  plastic  "  root  of  matter"  which  remains  an 
indelible  and  unalterable  law  for  it  throughout  all  its 
subsequent  transformations  and  evolutionary  processes. 
Here  we  approach  the  real  problem;  and  here,  in  com- 
mon with  all  religious  and  philosophical  systems,  we  have 
to  postulate  a  Causeless  Cause,  Omnipresent  and  Eternal, 
and  having  the  Substance,  Force,  and  Conscious  Aspects 
to  which  reference  has  already  been  had,  and  upon  the 
correlations  and  permutations  of  which  all  evolution  de- 
pends. The  late  Subba  Row,  in  his  lectures  on  the 
Bhagavad  Gita,  regarding  this  Absolute,  Causeless  Cause, 
writes: 

"Even  the  so-called  atheists  have  never  denied  it.  Various 
creeds  have  adopted  various  theories  as  to  the  nature  of  this 
Causeless  Cause.*  All  sectarian  disputes  have  arisen  not  from  a  dif- 
ference of  opinion  as  to  its  existence,  but  from  the  difference  of  the 
attributes  which  man's  intellect  has  constantly  tried  to  impose  upon 
it.  Is  it  possible  to  know  anything  about  the  Causeless  Cause  ?  No 
doubt  it  is  possible  to  know  something  about  it.  It  is  possible  to 
know  all  about  its  manifestations,  though  it  is  next  to  impossible  for 

*The  learned  lecturer  termed  this  throughout  the  First  Cause,  but 
as  he  evidently  meant  that  which  Theosophy,  following  the  Secret 
Doctrine,  recognizes  as  the  Causeless  Cause,  reserving  the  term  First 
Cause  for  the  creative  energy  in  manvantaric  activity,  I  have  accord- 
ingly taken  the  liberty  to  change  the  original  reading  in  accordance 
with  this,  to  avoid  unnecessary  confusion. 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  THE  SOUL.          67 

human  knowledge  to  penetrate  into  its  inmost  essence,  and  say  what 
it  really  is  in  itself.  We  know  that  it  is  subject  to  periods  of  activity 
and  passivity.  When  cosmic  pralaya  comes,  it  is  inactive ;  and 
when  evolution  commences,  it  becomes  active.  But  even  the  real 
reason  for  this  activity  and  passivity  is  unintelligible  to  our  minds. 

"This  Causeless  Cause,  or  Parabrahmam  of  the  Vedantin  philoso- 
phers, is  not  matter  nor  anything  like  matter.  It  is  not  even  con- 
sciousness, because  all  we  know  of  consciousness  is  with  reference  to 
a  definite  organism.  What  consciousness  is  or  will  be  when  sepa- 
rated from  a  vehicle  in  which  to  function  is  a  thing  utterly  incon- 
ceivable to  us,  and  not  only  to  us  but  to  any  other  intelligence  which 
has  the  notion  of  self  or  Ego  in  it,  or  which  has  a  distinct,  individu- 
alized existence. 

"  Of  course,  every  entity  in  this  Cosmos  must  come  under  the  head 
of  Ego,  Non-Ego,  or  Consciousness.  But  Parabrahmam,  the  Causeless 
Cause,  does  not  come  under  any  one  of  them.  Nevertheless,  it  seems 
to  be  the  One  source  of  which  Ego,  Non-Ego,  and  Consciousness  are 
manifestations,  or  modes  of  existence.  In  the  case  of  every  objective 
consciousness,  we  know  that  what  we  call  matter,  or  Non-Ego,  is, 
after  all,  a  mere  bundle  of  attributes.  But  whether  we  arrive  at  our 
conclusion  by  logical  inference,  or  whether  we  derive  it  from  innate 
consciousness,  we  always  suppose  that  there  is  an  entity — the  real 
essence  of  the  thing  upon  which  all  these  attributes  are  placed — 
which  bears  these  attributes  as  it  were,  the  essence  itself  being  un- 
known to  us. 

"  Now  this  Parabrahmam,  or  Causeless  Cause,  which  exists  before 
all  things  in  the  Cosmos,  is  the  one  essence  from  which  starts  into  ex- 
istence a  center  of  energy  called  the  Logos.  In  almost  every  doctrine 
is  formulated  the  existence  of  a  center  of  spiritual  energy  which  is 
unborn  and  eternal,  and  which  exists  in  a  latent  condition  in  the 
bosom  of  the  Causeless  Cause  at  the  time  of  pralaya,  and  starts  as  a 
center  of  conscious  energy  at  the  time  of  Cosmic  activity.  It  is  the 
first  Ego  in  the  Cosmos,  and  every  other  Ego  and  every  other  self  is 
but  its  reflection  or  manifestation.  It  is  the  great  mystery  in  the 
Cosmos,  with  reference  to  which  all  the  initiations  and  all  the  systems 
of  philosophy  have  been  devised.  It  is  not  material  nor  physical  in 


68  A    STUDY    OF   THE   SOUL. 

its  constitution,  and  it  is  not  objective  ;  it  is  not  different  in  substance 
as  it  were,  or  in  essence,  from  the  Causeless  Cause,  and  yet  at  the 
same  time  it  is  different  from  it  in  having  an  individualized  existence. 
It  exists  in  a  latent  condition  in  the  Causeless  Cause  at  the  time  of 
pralaya,  just  as  the  sense  of  Ego,  or  'I  am  I,'  is  latent  in  man 
during  sleep. 

"It  must  not  be  supposed  that  this  Logos  is  but  a  single  center  of 
energy  which  is  manifested  by  Parabrahmam,  or  the  Causeless  Cause. 
There  are  innumerable  others.  Their  number  is  almost  infinite. 
This  first  manifestation  of  Parabrahmam  appears  to  it  as  Mulapra- 
Icriti." 

That  is  to  say,  that  the  first  conscious.  Beings  in  the 
Universe  awaken  to  self-consciousness  to  find  themselves 
in  material  forms  or  vehicles,  precisely  as  we  awaken  to 
consciousness  to  find  ourselves  encased  in  these  physical 
bodies.  We  know  that  our  "  I"  is  not  the  same  as  the 
matter  which  clothes  it;  similarly,  the  Logoi  know  that 
the  "  root"  of  matter  which  clothes  them  is  only  a 
clothing,  and  what  the  real  nature  and  essence  of  that 
Causeless  Cause,  which  calls  into  objective  existence  both 
the  "I"  of  the  Logoi  and  their  material  base,  is  as  un- 
knowable to  the  great  and  primal  Ideation  expressed  in 
those  First  Logoi  as  is  the  source  of  our  "I"  and  its 
physical  vehicle  to  us.  « 

At  the  first  dawn  of  differentiation  and  consequent  evo- 
lution matter  has  impressed  upon  it,  from  these  First 
Logoi,  the  primal  manifestation  of  Consciousness  in  the 
Cosmos — that  impulse  and  directing  energy  which  will 
carry  it  through  all  the  successive  and  myriad  phases  of 
its  succeeding  evolutionary  manifestations,  to  the  time 
when  the  Great  Pralaya,  or  Rest,  shall  interpose  another 
period  of  inactivity,  as  certainly  as  that  Niagara  will  carry 
over  its  sublime  cataracts  all  the  water  which  flows  into 


THE   EVOLUTION    OF    THE   SOUL.  69 

it  from  the  great  lakes.  Remember,  there  is  no  evolution 
of  consciousness;  but  only  an  evolution  of  matter  into 
forms  fitted  to  express  higher  and  higher  states  or  reflec- 
tions of  that  Absolute  Consciousness,  which  it  is  just  as  ab- 
surd and  unscientific  to  predicate  any  additions  to 
through  evolution,  or  in  any  other  manner,  as  it1  is  to  as- 
sume the  "  creation"  of  new  matter.  'The  matter  of  the 
Universe  is  a  whole,  which  can  not  be  added  to  nor  taken 
from;  Consciousness  is  also  a  whole,  alike  incapable  of  ad- 
dition to  or  subtraction  from.  The  relation  of  the  one  to 
the  other  is,  as  already  pointed  out,  all  that  falls  under  the 
law  of  evolution ;  the  real  essence  of  both  remains  forever 
untouched,  resting  in  the  bosom  of  the  Causeless  Cause. 
This  does  not  bar  from  our  consideration  intelligent  su- 
pervision over  the  evolutionary  impulse  by  those  high, 
Creative  Logoi  above  referred  to.  For  the  whole  scheme 
of  evolution,  so  far  as  it  seems  comprehensible  to  finite 
beings,  consists  in  and  has  for  its  motive  the  changing  of 
the  relations  between  matter,  force,  and  consciousness,  so 
that  through  this  change  undifferentiated  consciousness 
shall  "evolve"  into  self-consciousness.  It  is  only  neces- 
sary that  these  Creative  Beings  should  act  in  conformity 
to  those  few  primal  and  underlying  laws  which  apparently 
limit  the  Absolute  itself,  of  which  the  law  of  cycles,  the 
law  of  karma,  and  the  law  of  infinite  Unity  rendered  man- 
ifest by  infinite  diversity,  or  variation,  are  examples.  The 
"I"  in  a  man  can  and  does  take  control  of  his  body,  for 
instance,  and  transport  it  wheresoever  it  pleases,  so  long 
as  it  acts  in  accordance  with  the  underlying  and  basic  laws 
of  mechanics  and  gravitation  pertaining  to  this  plane. 
Man  can,  also,  take  matter  and  transform  it  into  any 
shape,  or  transport  it  to  any  place,  if  he  keep  within  the 


70  A    STUDY    OF   THE    SOUL. 

same  bounds,  or  his  possible  as  distinguished  from  his 
impossible.  In  like  manner,  these  First  Great  Logoi 
can  fashion  worlds  and  even  sentient  beings  in  any  man- 
ner they  see  fitting,  so  long  as  they,  in  turn,  do  not  attempt 
to  transcend  their  impossible,  or  those  Absolute  limita- 
tions pomted  out  above.  And  this  working  in  harmony 
with  and  under  the  direction  of  this  original  impress  of 
the  First  Logoi  by  intelligent,  sentient,  yet  relatively 
lower  beings,  representing  of  necessity  infinite  degrees 
and  grades  of  intelligence,  is  the  true  source  of  that  much- 
harped-on  "  Design"  which  Christians  assume  as  indubi- 
table evidence  of  the  existence  of  their  personal  Jehovah. 
Much  of  this  creative,  or  fashioning,  intelligence  is  evi- 
dently very  greatly  inferior  to  that  of  man  in  some 
aspects,  though  immensely  transcending  his  powers  in 
others.  For  instance,  the  intelligence  which  fashions  the 
beautiful  form  and  flowers  of  an  apple-tree  is  not  suffi- 
cient to  prevent  the  seed  which  chances  to  fall  under  the 
angle  of  a  stone  wall  from  the  hopeless  task  of  attempting 
to  penetrate  this  obstacle;  nor  even  in  the  case  of  man's 
physical  form — which  is  not  created  by  the  same  order  of 
intelligences  that  are  the  source  of  his  intellect — will  it 
suffice  to  stay  the  progress  of  an  intended  evolution  of  a 
human  body,  although  this  has  been  rendered  plainly 
impossible  by  some  intra-uterine  accident  or  influence. 
This  is  the  real  source  of  the  monstrosities  in  nature, 
which  puzzle  alike  the  scientist  and  theologian. 

ftr,  now,  we  symbolize  the  Conscious-Aspect  of  the  Ab- 
solute by  physical  light,  then  matter  may  be  likened  to  a 
prism  which  decomposes  it  into  many  differing  strata. 
Being  thus  decomposed,  that  which  during  pralaya  was 
Absolute  Unity,  in  manvantara  manifests  differing  rates 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  THE  SOUL.          /I 

\ 

of  conscious  vibration,  so  to  speak,  just  as  the  white  light 
of  the  sun  when  passed  through  a  prism  is  broken  up  into 
the  varied  colors  of  the  spectrum,  each  having  an  entirely 
different  rate  of  vibratory  motion  and  wave  length.  Bear- 
ing in  mind,  then,  that  the  One  Consciousness,  or  One 
Life,  is  limited  in  its  manifestations  by  the  particular  form 
of  matter  in  which  it  is  functioning,  as  the  human  vision 
is  dark,  clear,  or  colored,  according  to  the  physical  media 
through  which  it  attempts  to  look;  and,  further,  that  this 
matter  itself  is  the  result  of  differing  rates  of  vibration 
acting  upon  and  in  the  eternal  Substance-Aspect  of  the 
Absolute — we  get  at  least  one  turn  of  the  key  which  at  the 
seventh  revolution  shall  unlock  the  secrets'  of  evolution 
and  objective  life.  We  can  perceive  how  these  original 
cosmic  curds,  driven  before  the  descending  vibrations,  the 
mechanical  agents  of  evolution,  assume  coarser  and  more 
compact  states  as  they  touch  successively  lower  vibrations 
of  the  Force-Aspect  of  the  Causeless  Cause.  Having 
reached  the  lowest  point  in  that  which  we  ignorantly  term 
"dead"  or  inorganic  matter,  under  the  stress  of  the 
original  impulse  they  begin  to  ascend  the  evolutionary 
arc — to  respond  to  successively  finer  and  more  delicate  vi- 
brations— thus  affording  ever  clearer  and  more  perfect 
forms,  in  which  higher  centers  of  consciousness  can  find 
suitable  vehicles.  At  the  beginning  of  manvantaric  man- 
ifestation, it  is  the  One  life,  represented  in  self-conscious- 
ness by  the  Logoi,  or  cosmic  centers.  When  the  impulse 
reaches  our  plane  of  matter,  it  is  still  the  One  life,  but 
represented  in  self-consciousness  here  by  the  individual- 
ized centers  of  humanity;.- 

The  state  of  matter  upon  our  little  earth  does  not  imply 
that  all  that  in  the  solar  system — much  less  the  Cosmos — 


72    *  A    STUDY    OF   THE    SOUL. 

is  in  similar  conditions.  Therefore,  Consciousness  is  in  as 
many  various  stages  of  expression  as  its  material  vehicle 
is  in  stages  of  evolution.  From  this  it  will  be  seen  how 
necessary  is  the  inference  that  there  are  infinite  grades  of 
intelligences  both  above  and  below  us,  as  the  result  of  the 
completed  evolutions  of  other  worlds,  other  systems,  and 
even  other  manvantaras.  A  Logos,  the  first  "  I,"  which 
appears  in  the  Cosmos  at  the  manvantaric  dawn,  is  an  in- 
dividualized center  of  self-consciousness  which  had  at- 
tained to  this  stage  at  the  close  of  trie  last  great  manvan- 
tara.  With  other  Logoi,  it  becomes  a  duty  to  watch  over 
and  direct  the  successive  evolutions  which  occur  during 
the  manvantara  over  which  they  thus  preside.  Below 
them  are  the  various  Hierarchies,  Builders,  Regents,  Cos- 
moscratores,  at  work  in  the  myriad  departments  of  mani- 
fested nature. 

Ylhe  knowledge  that  one  manvantara  is  the  reincarna- 
tion of  the  entire  Universe,  having  its  karma,  or  causes,'  set 
up  in  preceding  manvantaras,  exactly  corresponding  to 
the  reincarnation  of  the  human  soul,  on  its  lower  plane  of 
operation,  enables  us  to  understand  much  that  occurs.  The 
Logoi  would  correspond  to  man's  self-conscious,  reincar- 
nating Ego;  these  lower  Hierarchies,  Forces  and  Builders, 
to  the  universal  "  skandas,"  or  forces  which  necessarily 
pass  into  latency  at  the  striking  of  Universal  pralaya. 
No  manvantara  can  ever  complete  conscious  evolution; 
and  each  must  take  up  its  work  just  as  the  human  soul 
does — at  the  point  it  had  attained  when  the  universal  dis- 
solution of  the  Great  Pralaya  compelled  its  cessation. 
When  the  "hour"  strikes  for  this  universal  pralaya,  the 
consciousness  ensouled  in  the  lowest  mineral  bodies  will 
first  of  all  pass  into  a  condition  of  latency,  or  that  of  bare 


THE  .EVOLUTION    OF   THE    SOUL.  73 

subjective  potentiality  of  manifestation  when  fitting  mat- 
ter is  again  projected  at  another  manvantaric  dawn.  This 
enforced  latency  will  be  because  the  matter  or  combina- 
tion of  molecules  it  requires  for  its  outer  manifestation  no 
longer  exists  in  the  Universe,  on  account  of  the  withdraw- 
ing of  the  energy  which  caused  it  to  appear.  In  like  man- 
ner, will  plane  after  plane  of  consciousness  be  reached,  and 
its  entities,  deprived  of  material  form,  be  compelled  to  sleep 
during  the  great  eternity  of  unconsciousness  which  must 
precede  another  reawakening  of  the  Cosmos.  All  con- 
scious beings,  whether  of  high  or  low  degree,  will  thus  be 
indrawn  into  the  Absolute ;  yet  while  the  consciousness  of 
lower  forms  remains  only  a  potentiality,  like  that  of  a 
sleeping  or  entranced  man,  to  be  again  awakened  at  the 
new  Dawn,  that  of  the  highest  ones  will,  we  are  .told,  pass 
self-consciously  into  this  great  subjective  arc  of  the  cycle 
of  Eternal  Duration.  These  are  They,  the  Logoi,  the 
"  luminous  Sons  of  Manvantaric  Dawn,"  who  first  awaken 
to  self-conscious  life  upon  the  objective  plane  at  the  new 
manvantaric  projection.  Like  our  Higher  Egos,  which 
represent  the  wisdom  resulting  from  the  sum  of  our 
personal  experiences,  they  represent  the  sum  of  manvan- 
taric experience,  and  know  that  which  has  been  and  that 
which  is  to  be.  They  project  the  ideal  plan  of  the  man- 
vantara  that  is  to  be  through  Their  Divine  Ideation,  just 
as  an  architect  creates  in  his  mind  the  plan  of  the  mag- 
nificent structure,  which  may  not  be  materialized  except 
by  years  of  slow  and  tedious  labor.  Having  this  concep- 
tion of  what  is  to  be,  They  may  be  said  to  have  fore- 
knowledge of  it;  but  it  is  similar  to  the  foreknowledge  of 
the  architect  of  the  structure  he  proposes  'to  erect.  This 
ideal  plan,  first  clothed  with  the  divine  Substance- Aspect 


74  A   STUDY   OF   THE   SOUL. 

of  the  Absolute,  stands  as  the  eternal  prototype  of  that 
which  is  to  be,  throughout  its  entire  cycle.  It  is  past, 
present,  and  future  combined  in  an  eternal  Now.  As  it 
clothes  and  materializes  itself  by  descending  to  success- 
ively lower  and  more  material  planes,  we  name  the  slow 
process,  the  successive  stages  of  this  unfolding,  Time,  and 
imagine  that  it. marks  real  divisions  of  eternity.  Could 
we  approach  nearer  to  the  heart  of  Being  this  phantasma- 
goria of  fleeting  illusion  would  cease,  and  the  time- 
harassed  soul  pass  into  eternal  peace. 

At  each  successive  stage  of  this  unfolding  in  time  of  the 
Divine  Ideation,  the  entities,  overtaken  by  the  last  pra- 
laya,  awaken  from  their  long  repose.  They  have  no  con- 
ception of  the  unthinkable  periods  which  have  passed 
them  by,  because  they  have  not  passed  them  by — time 
has  not  existed  for  them.  Like  the  Seven  Sleepers  of 
Ephesus,  their  awakening  finds  them  with  no  knowledge 
of  any  interval.  The  monad  ensouled  in  the  mineral 
atoms  again  reclothes  itself  as  this  form  of  matter  appears, 
and  the  various  Hierarchies,  Cosmocratores  and  Builders 
resume  their  labors.  The  great  workshop  of  nature,  so 
long  stilled,  is  again  filled  with  its  countless  entities,  each 
performing  its  proper  office;  making  what  progress  it 
may,  until  the  striking  of  another  pralaya  calls  to  another 
season  of  subjective  being  and  rest.  There  are  thus 
myriads  of  "  Gods,"  or  Creative  Forces,  or  entities,  in 
nature. 

These  different  Orders  of  Creators  or  Builders  must  be 
accepted,  if  evolution  is  to  be  intelligently  comprehended. 
It  is  as  though  the  great  Prism  to  which  we  have  likened 
matter  was  capable  of  being  acted  upon  by  eternal  Force 
or  Motion  until  it  gradually  became  more  and  more  trans- 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  THE  SOUL.          75 

parent  and  permitted  higher  and  higher  rates  of  vibrations 
of  consciousness  to  pass  through  it.  Thus,  at  the  stage  of 
"dead"  matter  the  prism  is  so  dense  as  only  to  permit  the 
red  rays  or  vibrations,  so  to  speak,  to  pass. 
/Keeping  to  our  simile,  in  these  red  rays  there  can  only 
find  expression  that  form  of  consciousness  which  is  so  dif- 
ferent from  the  human  that  we  call  its  matter  "dead." 
Yet  the  impulse  received  at  the  manvantaric  or  creative* 
dawn  will  not  permit  matter  to  rest  in  this  or  any  other 
condition.  So,  very  gradually,  and  requiring  ages  of 
geologic  time,  "  dead"  matter  is  lifted  or  forced  up,  until, 
like  a  mountain  top  at  sunrise,  it  catches  here  and  there 
the  streams  of  the  next  color,  or  the  orange  vibrations; 
and,  a  higher  consciousness  being  now  permitted  to  obtain 
a  foothold,  the  vegetable  kingdom  appears.  Becoming, 
under  the  constant  impact  of  the  eternal  motion,  still 
more  translucent,  it  transmits  now  the  yellow  rays,  and 
animal  consciousness  makes  its  appearance  upon  the 
earth.  Becoming  still  more  refined,  green  rays  are  trans- 
mitted, and  human  consciousness  is  enabled  to  find  a  fit- 
ting vehicle  and  man  appears  upon  the  scene.  And  when 
matter  has  evolved  to  that  state  in  which  the  remaining 
colors  of  the  spectrum  are  permitted  to  pass,  anct  a  cor- 
responding consciousness  to  function,  who  can  even  im- 
agine its  glorious  potentialities! 


UNIVERSITY 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE    INDIVIDTJALIZATION    OF    THE    SOUL. 

@ONSIDERING  Consciousness,  then,  as  an  essential 
aspect  of  the  Causeless  Cause,  we  have  to  postu- 
late it  as  inhering  potentially  in  every  stratum  or  pos- 
sible subdivision  of  the  Substance-Aspect  of  the  same 
Causeless  Cause,  and  as  becoming  a  potency  only  by 
virtue  of  this  association.  In  like  manner,  matter  may  be 
said  to  be  a  potentiality  in  all  spirit  or  consciousness,  and 
as  also  becoming  potent  (evolving  form)  only  by  and 
because  of  this  association.  As  neither  can  manifest 
upon  the  finite  plane  without  the  aid  of  the  other,  it  is 
useless  to  speculate  as  to  their  relative  superiority.  Be- 
cause the  consciousness  which  we  recognize  as  self-con- 
sciousness in  our  thinking,  feeling  and  willing  Ego  is  evi- 
dently very  greatly  superior  in  function  to  the  material 
form  or  body  with  which  it  is  associated,  it  does  riot  fol- 
low that  on  their  own  plane  the  matter  and  consciousness 
of  the  cells  out  of  which  this  body  is  constructed  are  in 
any  similar  degree  of  relative  superiority  and  inferiority, 
nor  that  the  material  basis  in  which  our  Ego  has  its  own 
proper  habitation  is  in  a  relatively  inferior  state.  Our 
Egos,  as  will  presently  be  shown,  are  now  using  these 
bodies  to  bring  themselves  into  sense  relations  with  the 
material  plane,  similarly  as  a  scientist  uses  the  microscope 
to  open  up  avenues  of  knowledge  otherwise  unattainable. 
Matter  of  some  degree  is  the  great  register  upon  which 


THE    INDIVIDUALIZATION    OF   THE   SOUL.  77 

the  Conscious-Aspect  of  the  Causeless  Cause  records  its 
experiences.  Without  this  association,  continuity  of  con- 
scious experiences  could  not  be  assured — unless  we  as- 
sume consciousness  without  any  material  basis  whatever 
to  be  a  possibility  in  nature,  which  position  must  always 
remain  an  assumption  because  unverifiable,  unthinkable, 
and  analogically  unwarrantable  from  all  phenomena  to 
which  we  have  present  access.  The  immortality  of  that 
conscious  center  we  recognize  as  our  "  I  am  myself"  de- 
pends entirely,  from  its  material  aspect,  upon  the  relative 
permanency  or  impermanency  of  the  material  tablets 
upon  which  it  records  its  conscious  experiences.  And 
the  "  Primordial  Substance"  of  Western  philosophy,  as 
well  as  the  "  mulaprakriti,"  or  "  root  of  matter,"  of  the 
Eastern  Vedantins — the  Substance-Aspect  of  this  study — 
is  but  the  great  and  eternal  tablet  upon  which  Infinite 
Consciousness  inscribes  its  finite  experiences. 

If,  then,  at  the  dawn  of  a  new  awakening  to  material 
existence,  we  have  the  re-emerging,  in  obedience  to  the 
law  of  cyclic  activity,  of  consciousness  clothed  in  material 
form,  we  may  picture  such  consciousness  as  a  bare 
potency  only.  It  IS,  but  it  can  not  be  said  to  have  any 
other  attributes.  It  has  clothed  itself  with  appropriate 
Substance,  under  another  great  law  of  the  Absolute  unto 
itself — that  of  Cause  and  Effect.  Passing  by,  for  the 
present,  those  infinite  variations  of  appropriate  form  re- 
sulting from  the  degrees  of  becoming  attained  by  differ- 
ing entities  during  past  manvantaras,  let  us  take  up  that 
which  we  may  term  monadic  or  (to  us)  undifferentiated 
consciousness.  It  represents  as  nearly  as  we  can  imagine 
pure,  subjective  potentiality  of  becoming.  Yet  in  this  first 
clothing  of  itself  in  its  counterpart — pure,  unimpressed, 


78  A    STUDY    OF    THE    SOUL. 

virgin  substance — it  has  imposed  upon  itself  a  limitation. 
It  has  acquired  the  widening  of  consciousness  resulting 
from  this  association,  and  can  never  again  return  to  its  for- 
mer condition  of  bare  subjectivity.  Let  us  suppose  that 
this  association,  which  for  want  of  a  better  we  may  term 
elemental,  continues  for  a  manvantara.  At  that  period,  if 
no  sooner,  the  bond  would  be  dissolved  and  the  conscious- 
ness freed,  to  take  a  new  clothing  and  attain  a  farther  ex- 
perience at  the  next  great  awakening  of  the  Cosmos. 
This  time  it  can  not  re-enter  just  the  same  class  or  degree 
of  substance  it  did  before,  for  it  has  something  added  to 
it  which  makes  it  greater  than  before  this  addition. 
Therefore,  it  must,  under  the  stress  of  that  which  we  term 
natural  evolution,  seek  higher  avenues,  and  this  plainly 
and  simply  because  of  the  mathematical  axiom  that  the 
lesser  can  not  contain  the  greater.  It  seeks,  then,  a 
higher  expression,  and  clothes  itself,  let  us  say,  with  that 
which  we  know  as  mineral,  or  inorganic,  matter.  It  re- 
mains another  planetary  or  minor  manvantara  in  this 
form  until  freed  by  another  planetary  or  minor  pralaya. 

Under  the  same  law  it  can  not  at  a  new  world-birth  re- 
clothe  itself  in  mineral  matter;  it  must  seek  the  vegetable 
kingdom.  Thence  it  rrvust  pass  to  the  animal,  and  from 
thence  be  pushed  to  the  human ;  and  all  this  under  the 
necessity  of  natural  law  governing  evolution  of  form,  this 
u  natural  law"  being  that  primal  impress  upon  it  by  the 
Logoi  at  the  great  manvantaric  dawn. 

This  is  a  general  view  of  the  process  from  its  purely  ma- 
terial aspect.  It  of  necessity  only  pictures  half  the  real- 
ity, as  all  one-sided  views  must.  '  There  is  also  a  .con- 
scious aspect,  which  must  not  be  left  out  of  consideration. 
Retracing  our  steps  to  pick  this  up,  let  us  pause  to  reflect 


THE    INDIVIDUALIZATION    OF    THE    SOUL.  79 

upon  what  must  take  place  when  bare,  subjective  con- 
sciousness has  been  released  from  its  first  association  with 
a  material  vestment.  We  have  seen,  under  the  law  that 
the  lesser  can  not  contain  the  greater,  that  it  can  not  re- 
clothe  itself  with  the  same  undifferentiated  matter  again. 
Where,  then,  will  it  find  material  for  its  next  and  higher 
expression?  Evidently,  it  can  only  do  this  by  creating 
for  itself  vestments  out  of  matter  already  the  seat  of  con- 
sciousness in  its  own  former  and  lower  expression.  So, 
if  this  lower  expression  be  pictured  in  some  inconceivable 
way  as  transcendentally  atomic  using  this  term  "atom" 
in  its  ordinary  scientific  acceptation, — then  it  must  syn- 
thesize and  collect  these  transcendental  atoms  into,  let  us 
suppose,  transcendental  molecules,  and  of  these  build  its 
higher  habitation.  By  so  doing  it  not  only  does  not  in- 
terfere with  the  evolution  of  form  and  the  becoming  in 
consciousness  going  on  in  these  primitive  atoms,  but  also 
actually  aids  and  hastens  this  process  by  its  own  presence, 
and  consequent  imparting,  to  a  degree  at  least,  its  own 
essence  to  this  atomic  consciousness  with  which  it  is  thus, 
as  it  were,  molecularly  associated.  This  lifting  up  of 
lower  consciousness  by  the  presence  and  surrounding  of 
higher  is  the  spiritual  aspect  of  the  great  evolutionary 
process,  and  one  which  the  scientist  resolutely  refuses  to 
recognize,  although  obeying  its  commands  inTTis 'associa- 
tion with,  and  impress  imparted  to,  the  cells  of  his  body 
every  moment  of  his  life.  It  has  been  called  the  Divine 
Law  of  Compassion,  and  an  attribute  of  the  very  Abso- 
lute itself.  Thus  it  is  that  the  higher  must  help  the  lower; 
unconsciously  in  the  lower  kindoms,  consciously  in  the 
higher — or  try  to  oppose  the  highest  law  in  nature,  and 
perish  !  In  this  fact  lies  the  oft-repeated  assertion  of 


80  A    STUDY    OF    THE    SOUL. 

Theosophists  that  altruism  is  the  law,  and  the  only 
means  of  progress,  upon  the  higher  human  planes  at  least. 
For  man  has  become  a  self-conscious  factor  in  that 
great  scheme  of  evolution  which  has  for  its  basis  Divine 
compassion. 

Recognizing,  then,  the  dual  aspect  of  that  which  we 
term  evolution,  but  which  is  only  an  evolution  of  form  and 
a  becoming  in  consciousness,  let  us  once  more  retrace  our 
steps  somewhat  in  our  study  of  the  becoming  of  the  hu- 
man soul.  Yet  in  all  this  we  must  not  lose  sight  of  the 
fact  that  "  every  entity  in  the  Universe  either  is,  was,  or 
prepares  to  become,  a  man."*  We  must  not  view  man 
for  one  instant  as  apart  from  nature  as  a  whole,  or  as*  not 
subject  to  her  every  law  in  common  with  all  other  en- 
tities whether  of  high  or  low  degree.  We  have  seen,  in  a 
general  way,  how  the  process  of  evolution,  which  has  been 
well  termed  the  Cycle  of  Necessity,  forces  entities  into 
progressively  higher  forms  of  matter;  that,  in  fact,  every 
descent  or  involution  of  spirit,  or  consciousness,  in  matter 
is  the  exact  equivalent  of  an  evolution  of  material  form. 
For  the  new  descent  compels  the  building  of  higher 
forms  to  contain,  or  to  allow  expression  for,  the  entities 
crowded  out — if  the  term  be  allowable — of  their  old  habi- 
tations by  the  incoming  guests.  We  have  seen,  also,  that 
consciousness  is  at  first  monadic — using  this  term  in  its 
true  sense  of  One-ness,  and  which  is  quite  different  from 
that  in  which  we  speak  of  the  human  Monad — and  is  only 
very  gradually  impressed  with  the  stamp  of  any  individual 
experience.  It  might  be  likened  to  the  crude  gold  nuggets, 
which  are  simply  gold  at  first,  and  indistinguishable  from 
other  nuggets  until  they  become  coins  of  different  values 

*Secret  Doctrine. 


THE    INDIVIDUALIZATION    OF    THE    SOUL.  8 1 

under  the  various  individualizing  processes  and  stamps 
received  in  the  mint.  If,  now,  we  remember  that  this 
which  we  have  termed  a  Great  Manvantara,  or  objective 
arc  of  the  Universe,  is  interrupted  by  an  almost  infinite 
number  of  minor  pralayas,  or  subjective  cycles  of  rest, 
of  equally  infinite  degrees  of  incompleteness,  we  shall  at 
length  be  in  a  position  to  appreciate  evolution  as  we  per- 
ceive its  action  in  nature  about  us.  For  under  the  gen- 
eral view,  with  which  this  chapter  was  prefaced,  it  would 
seem  to  have  been  inferred  that  only  Great  Pralayas,  or 
times  of  Universal  Rest,  allowed  of  the  liberation  of  con- 
sciousness and  its  consequent  progression  in  future  man- 
vantaras.  This  is  By  no  means  the  case.  These  pralayas 
extend  from  the  unthinkable  periods  contemplated  by  the 
Brahmanical  classification,  and  represented  arithmetically 
by  fifteen  places  of  figures,  to  periods  of  perhaps  less  than 
a  second,  as  in  the  case  of  the  death  and  renewals  of  the 
molecules  composing  the  cells  of  our  bodies.  The  death 
of  a  human  body  is  only  a  .pralaya  or  rest  for  the  soul, 
affording  another  opportunity,  after  this  rest  is  over,  for 
further  conscious  experiences.  The  death  of  a  planet  is 
its  pralaya;  and  so  on  for  a  cell,  a  sun,  or  any  entity 
whatever.  These  minor  pralayas  by  no  means  restore 
consciousness  to  its  absolute  condition,  as  the  Great  Pra- 
layas do,  but  only  to  relative  and  infinitely  varying  states 
of  freedom  from  material  form.  Thus,  sleep  is  a  pralaya 
which  temporarily  frees  man's  higher  principles,  while 
death  is  similar,  but  of  much  higher  degree.  After  the 
first,  consciousness  must  return  to  the  same  body;  after 
the  second,  it  clothes  itself  with  an  entirely  new  one. 
Minor  and  incomplete  pralayas,  such  as  sleep,  are  often 
spoken  of  as  Obscurations. 


82  A    STUDY    OF    THE    SOUL. 

Returning  from  this  necessary  digression  :  The  con- 
sciousness expressed  in  mineral  form,  upon  its  dissocia- 
tion from  any  cause  from  this,  could  easily  re-enter  any,  or 
almost  any,  portion  of  the  entire  mineral  kingdom.  So 
the  lowly  forms  of  vegetable  or  animal  life,  respectively, 
might  easily  be  capable  of  a  wide  range  of  choice  among 
other  lowly  forms  of  their  kingdoms.  But  how  about  that 
consciousness  expressed  in  the  elephant,  the  tiger,  or  the 
stately  tree,  even?  Is  it  possible  to  conceive  of  a  mag- 
nificent oak,  for  example,  upon  the  destruction  of  its  cel- 
lular clothing,  re-entering  a  fungus  or  a  daisy  ?  or  of  the 
carnivorous,  cruel  tiger  reappearing  as  a  dove?  These 
would  be  but  senseless  attempts  to  make  the  lesser  con- 
tain the  greater;  to  pour  the  ocean  into  the  thimble. 

It  is  easy  to  see  that  each  conscious  experience  added 
makes  it  more"  and  more  difficult,  as  the  ages  go  by,  for  a 
reincarnating  entity  to  even  re-enter  its  own  class;  and 
that  thus,  in  its  minor  degree,  it  will  travel  its  own  cycle  of 
necessity,  first  as  an  element,  then  as  a  mineral,  then  a 
plant,  an  animal,  a  man  and — a  god  !  It  is  also  compre- 
hensible, if  but  dimly,  howr  the  beginnings  of  individuality 
are  thus  faintly  impressed  upon  potential  centers  of  con- 
sciousness in  kingdoms  far  below  the  human,  or  even  the 
animal.  How  these  potential  centers  themselves  originate 
is  not  a  subject  for  finite  inquiry;  it  is  a  mystery  per- 
taining to  the  Great  Unknowable  Causeless  Cause.  We 
only  know  that  they  do  originate;  and,  as  stated,  may, 
without  transcending  finite  limits,  dimly  conceive  of  their 
after  processes.  It  is  within  our  power,  also,  to  imagine 
— and  even  to  trace — a  pathway  by  following  which  we 
can  perceive  that,  after  unthinkable  periods  of  conscious 
experiences  in  lower  forms,  there  would  at  last  come  a 


THE    INDIVIDUALIZATION    OF   THE    SOUL.  83 

time  when  a  conscious  center  forced  into  a  higher  king- 
dom would  recognize  that  this  state  was  unlike  former 
ones — and,  lo !  the  mystery  of  self-consciousness  is 
achieved,  and  a  human  soul  has  become  !  For  self-con- 
sciousness is  but  the  recognition  that  our  consciousness  is 
different  from  that  of  entities  around  us,  the  differenti- 
ation of  Ego  from  Non-Ego.  This  once  recognized,  all 
our  magnificent  introspective  or  subjective  mental  proc- 
esses become  only  a  question  of  widening  phenomenal 
experience. 

Yet  the  view  of  man's  becoming  will  still  be  one-sided 
if  we  lose  sight  of  the  spiritual  aspect  of  evolution,  already 
referred  to.  Every  advanced  entity  in  the  Universe,  as 
we  have  seen,  is  forced  during  the  Cycle  of  Necessity,  by 
this  grand  law  of  involution,  plus  evolution,  to  clothe  itself 
with  entities  occupying  lower  forms  of  matter.  It  thus 
secures  its  own  continued  conscious  experiences,  and  mer- 
cifully assists  those  with  which  it  is  thus  associated  to  rise 
in  the  scale  of  being.  This  is  the  true  mystery  of  man's 
relation  to  the  bodies  in  which  he  is  incarnated.  He  is 
using  lower  forms  of  life  to  enable  him  to  obtain  conscious 
experiences  on  the  material  plane.  Until  this  simple  ex- 
planation is  recognized  by  Western  nations  they  will  con- 
tinue to  grope  between  the  Scylla  of  materialistic  nega- 
tion and  Charybdis  of  dogmatic  superstition. 

Once  this  spiritual  aspect  of  evolution 'is  recognized, 
however,  much  of  the  mystery  of  man's  dual  nature,  of 
those  two  souls  which  Goethe  declares  strive  in  every 
human  breast,  becomes  intelligible.  The  entities — our 
Higher  Egos — thus  occupying  the  highly  complex  molec- 
ular associations  composing  our  bodies,  light  up,  by  their 
presence  in  this  form,  a  reflection  of  the  pure  flame  con- 


84  A   STUDY    OF   THE   SOUL. 

stituting  their  own  higher  essence.  Having  thus  ration- 
alized that  which  was  before  but  physical  senses  common 
to  all  animals  as  well  as  animal  man,  they — or  we — can 
now  relate  themselves  to  this  plane  of  phenomena  through 
this  reflection  thus  imparted  by  their  presence.  But,  alas, 
in  rationalizing  they  have  not  destroyed  the  desires  and 
passions  of  purely  animal,  sensuous  existence.  On  the 
contrary,  these  are  strengthened  a  thousand-fold  by  being 
thus  illumined  by  reason.  There  has  been  added  to  the 
sensuous  delight  that  of  anticipation  as  well  as  remem- 
brance. The  reasoning,  remembering  animal  now  runs 
riot  in  its  mad  chase  after  sensuous  delights.  And  to 
control  this  fatally  beautiful  animal,  to  spiritualize  senses 
thus  rationalized,  is  the  hard  task  set  before  every  human 
soul.  This  is  the  conflict — the  two  souls  within  our  breast 
fighting  for  mastery — which  has  been  the  theme  of  many 
an  inspired  poem,  from  the  Bhagavad  Gita  down  to  the 
humble  Salvation  Army  enthusiast  who  sings,  "  My  Soul, 
be  on  thy  guard!"  Yet  this  very  conflict  strengthens, 
even  as  the  fierce  winds  only  cause  the  oak  to  strike 
more  deeply  its  roots  into  the  earth.  It  is  a  necessary 
part  of  the  great  scheme  of  evolution — a  rugged,  danger- 
ous portion  of  that  way  which  "  leads  up  hill  to  the  very 
end." 


CHAPTER  V. 

REINCARNATION  — PHILOSOPHIC     AND     LOG- 
ICAL   EVIDENCE. 

JT£HE  preceding  chapters  having,  it  is  believed,  estab- 
lished the  fact  that  man  has  a  center  of  conscious- 
ness, or  soul,  quite  independent  of  the  body  for  its  exist- 
ence, or  conscious  functions — except  as  the  sense  organs 
of  the  latter  relate  it  to  the  material  plane  of  the  Cosmos, 
— those  remaining  will  be  devoted  to  a  study  of  the  na- 
ture of  the  relations  sustained  by  this  soul  to  the  body. 
Standing  first  and  foremost  among  these  is  the  fact  of  its 
reincarnation,  or  its  successive  occupation  of  many  bodies 
during  its  evolution  through  matter. 

Reincarnation  is  quite  distinct  from  metempsychosis, 
when  this  is  understood  to  mean  the  return  of  the  soul  to 
earth  through  human  or  animal  bodies  indifferently;  for  it 
emphatically  denies  that,  having  once  attained  the  human 
state,  the  soul  can  ever  retrograde  into  an  animal  condi- 
tion. A  human  soul  has  developed,  as  we  have  seen  in 
the  study  of  its  evolution,  certain  qualities  and  potencies 
which  are  as  incapable  of  functioning  in  an  animal  body 
as  the  tissues  of  a  giant  oak  are  incapable  of  being  me- 
chanically recompressed  within  the  limits  of  the  original 
acorn  out  of  which  it  grew. 

A  correct  conception  of  Reincarnation  recognizes  that 
the  body,  as  such,  has  no  part  in  the  soul's  return  to  earth; 
that  the  connection  of  the  body  with  the  soul  is,  prima- 
rily, to  furnish  sense  organs  to  relate  the  latter  to  a  plane 


86  A    STUDY   OF   THE    SOUL. 

so  far  beneath  its  own  spiritual  nature  as  to  be  reached 
only  by  this  means;  and,  secondarily,  in  the  matter  of 
which  the  body,  or  bundle  of  sense  organs,  is  constructed 
reside  certain  "  qualities"  the  nature  of  which  it  is  essen- 
tial to  the  intellectual  progress  of  the  soul  that  it  learn. 
For  it  is  only  by  experiencing  its  "  opposite"  that  true 
knowledge  of  any  "quality"  in  nature,  whether  physical, 
mental  or  spiritual,  can  be  obtained.  Matter  upon  the 
fourth  plane  of  any  world  is  said  to  be  "  kamic,"  or  full  of 
"  rajas"  or  desire.  Hence,  anger,  passion,  malice,  envy, 
ambition,  and  a  host  of  similar  "  qualities"  of  matter,  are 
brought  directly  to  the  cognizance  of  the  soul  by  means 
of  its  incarnating  in  a  body  full  of  them.  Out  of  the  ex- 
perience of  these,  so  undergone,  it  acquires  a  knowledge 
of  the  true  nature  of  their  opposites ;  •  and  evolves  a  wis- 
dom it  could  never  gather  but  for  this  association  with  a 
body.  This  will  be  more  fully  explained  in  the  chapter 
upon  the  Reincarnating  Ego. 

To  Western  minds,  Reincarnation  is  both  unfamiliar 
and  distasteful.  The  unfamiliarity  is  due,  perhaps,  to  the 
materialistic  tendencies  of  its  great  thinkers,  especially  in 
the  domain  of  science.  Most  scientists  have  been,  and 
are,  unwilling  to  admit  the  existence  of  a  soul  in  man,  to 
say  nothing  of  its  reincarnating. 

That  the  idea  should  be  distasteful  to  the  unphilosophic 
mind,  especially  if  trained  to  base  all  concepts,  whether 
human  or  divine,  upon  personality  and  separateness,  is 
not  surprising.  The  superstructure  of  modern  civilization 
is  erected  upon  a  foundation  of  individualism,  and  this  in 
its  lowest  and  most  material  sense.  To  succeed  in  life  is 
its  one  object,  and  by  success  is  understood  the  acquire- 
ment of  wealth  or  fame.  The  view  which  involves  a  sue- 


PHILOSOPHIC    AND    LOGICAL   EVIDENCE.  87 

cession  of  lives  in  its  perspective  is  necessarily  lost  sight 
of  with  horizons  rigidly  defined  by  matter.  "  When  we 
are  dead  it  is  for  a  long  time,"  a  remark  by  a  French 
cynic,  fairly  presents  the  conception  of  life  from  the  mod- 
ern materialistic  and  utilitarian  standpoint.  That  he  who 
does  not  make  the  most  of  it  is  missing  opportunities 
which  will  never  again  offer,  is  generally  accepted.  From 
this  it  necessarily  follows  that  strong  personalities  should 
evolve  as  the  soul  returns,  life  after  life,  with  its  longing 
for  riches,  fame,  or  power  strengthened  and  confirmed  by 
successive  partial  realizations.  Therefore,  when  Western 
people  are  told  that  death  ends  the  career  of  Mr.  Smith, 
who  has  amassed  millions,  or  of  Mr.  Brown,  who  has  be- 
come a  great  general,  and  that  all  that  really  survives  in 
any  life  are  certain  higher,  spiritual  thoughts  and  aspira- 
tions which  have  become  foreign  to  the  very  motive  of 
our  Western  civilization,  they  are  naturally  repulsed. 
The  Christian  heaven,  with  its  guarantee  of  the  eternal 
persistence  of  the  entire  Mr.  Smith,  minus  his  body  but 
plus  a  pair  of  wings,  seems  much  more  desirable. 

But  that  Reincarnation  should  be  unsatisfactory  to  the 
philosophic  mind  is  unaccountable.  For  materialistic  phi- 
losophy deliberately  parts  with  life  at  the  death  of  the 
body;  and  in  view  of  the  utter  blank  beyond  the  grave — 
the  terrible,  awful  conception  of  ceasing  to  be — it  would 
seem  reasonable  that  it  should  seize  eagerly  upon  any  ten- 
able hypothesis  which  promises  an  extension  of  being. 
Yet,  of  all  classes,  materialists  are  the  most  eager  to  prove 
that  when  the  curtain  falls  at  death  the  play  is  over,  ex- 
cept to  new  audiences. 

The  proofs  of  the  Reincarnation  of  the  soul  follow,  logic- 
ally, as  a  corollary  to  the  evidence  of  its  existence  as  an 


88  A   STUDY    OF   THE   SOUL. 

entity  independent  of  the  body;  for  a  soul  shown  to 
possess  powers  superior  to  its  tenement  must  have  brought 
such  faculties  and  powers  with  it,  and  will  necessarily  take 
them  when  it  departs.  The  only  remaining  evidence 
required,  then,  is  to  connect  the  source  of  this  supe- 
riority with  Reincarnation  in  successive  bodies,  such  as, 
or  similar  to,  those  we  now  possess.  This  evidence  may 
be  conveniently  studied  under  its  logical,  or  philosophical 
and  scientific  aspects. 

jTaking  up,  primarily  then,  the  logical  and  philosophic 
portion  of  our  enquiry,  it  may  be  said  that  there  are  three 
hypotheses  concerning  the  origin  and  destiny  of  the  soul, 
under  which  almost  every  possible  form  of  belief  may  be 
classified.  The  first,  and  that  which  is  held  by  a  very 
large  majority  of  the  human  race,  is  Reincarnation,  or  the 
repeated  descent  of  the  soul  into  material  bodies.  The 
second  is  the  one-birth  theory,  which  supposes  the  crea- 
tion of  a  new  soul  at  each  birth,  and  having  its  chief  rep- 
resentative in  modern — not  ancient — Christianity.  It 
also  includes  most  of  the  believers  in  Spiritualism.  The 
third  looks  upon  the  soul  as  the  product  of  the  molecular 
and  chemical  activities  going  on  within  the  body,  and 
holds  that  tlje  cessation  of  these  activities  necessitates  its 
destruction.  This  is  the  theory  of  modern  materialism. 
Now,  if  we  apply  the  crucial  test  of  an  hypothesis — that 
of  accounting  for  all  the  phenomena  included  within  its 
own  proper  territory — we  shall  be  at  once  in  a  position  to 
judge  of  the  truth  or  falsity  of  each  of  these  three  con- 
cerning the  soul. 

First,  then,  as  to  the  object  of  life.  Except  we  deny 
any  aim  at  all  in  Nature's  processes  which  have  led  up  to 
man,  it  is  evident  that  in  man  the  one  paramount  object  is 


PHILOSOPHIC  AND  LOGICAL  EVIDENCE.      89 

to  gain  knowledge  and  wisdom  through  experience. 
Even  one  short  life  forces  us  to  this  conclusion.  Mate- 
rialism does  not  deny  this,  but  claims  that  this  increment 
of  wisdom  is  transmitted  to  the  race,  and  that  the  individ- 
ual has  no  future  share  in  it.  If  experience  and  wisdom 
resulting  therefrom  be  the  object,  then  one  life  is  simply 
absurd.  Did  all  attain  old  age,  the  case  would  be  bad 
enough,  but  when  we  consider  the  vast  number  who  die 
with  no  experience  whatever,  the  inadequacy  of  one  life  to 
accomplish  this  purpose  becomes  apparent  to  the  dullest 
intellect. 

As  has  been  well  shown  by  a  recent  writer  :* 
"The  usual  belief  is  that  we  are  here  but  once,  and  once  for  all  de- 
termine our  future.  And  yet  it  is  abundantly  clear  that  one  life,  even 
if  prolonged,  is  no  more  adequate  to  gain  knowledge,  acquire  expe- 
rience, solidify  principle,  and  form  character,  than  would  one  day  in 
infancy  be  adequate  to  fit  for  the  duties  of  mature  manhood.  Any 
man  can  make  this  even  clearer  by  estimating,  on  the  one  hand,  the 
probable  future  which  Nature  contemplates  for  humanity,  and,  on 
the  other,  his  present  preparation  for  it.  That  future  includes  evi- 
dently two  things — an  elevation  of  the  individual  to  god-like  excel- 
lence, and  his  gradual  apprehension  of  the  Universe  of  Truth.  His 
present  preparation,  therefore,  consists  of  a  very  imperfect  knowledge 
of  a  very  small  department  of  one  form  of  existence,  and  that  mainly 
gained  through  the  partial  use  of  misleading  senses  ;  of  a  suspicion, 
rather  than  a  belief,  that  the  sphere  of  super-sensuous  truth  may  ex- 
ceed the  sensuous  as  the  universe  does  this  earth  ;  of  a  partially 
developed  set  of  moral  and  spiritual  faculties,  none  acute  and  none 
unhampered,  but  all  dwarfed  by  non-use,  poisoned  by  prejudice,  and 
perverted  by  ignorance  ;  the  whole  nature,  moreover,  being  limited 
in  its  interests  and  affected  in  its  endeavor  by  the  ever-present  needs 
of  a  physical  body  which,  much  more  than  the  soul,  is  felt  to  be  the 

*The  Necessity  for  Reincarnation.     Leaflet. 


90  A    STUDY    OF    THE   SOUL. 

real  'I.'  Is  such  a  being,  narrow,  biased,  carnal,  sickly,  fitted  to 
enter  at  death  on  a  limitless  career  of  spiritual  acquisition  ? 

' '  Now,  there  are  only  three  ways  in  which  this  obvious  unfitness 
may  be  overcome, — a  transforming  power  in  death,  a  post-mortem 
and  wholly  spiritual  discipline,  a  series  of  Reincarnations.  There  is 
nothing  in  the  mere  separation  of  soul  from  body  to  confer  wisdom, 
ennoble  character,  or  cancel  dispositions  acquired  through  fleshliness. 
If  any  such  power  resided  in  death,  all  souls,  upon  being  disem- 
bodied, would  be  precisely  alike, — a  palpable  absurdity.  Nor  could 
a  post-mortem  discipline  meet  the  requirement,  and  this  for  the  fol- 
lowing reasons  :  (a)  the  soul's  knowledge  of  human  life  would  always 
remain  insignificant ;  (b)  of  the  various  faculties  only  to  be  developed 
during  incarnation,  some  would  still  be  dormant  at  death,  and  there- 
fore never  evolve  ;  (c)  the  unsatisfying  nature  of  material  life  would 
not  have  been  fully  demonstrated  ;  (d)  there  would  have  been  no  de- 
liberate conquest  of  the  flesh  by  the  spirit ;  (e)  the  meaning  of  Uni- 
versal Brotherhood  would  have  been  very  imperfectly  seen  ;  (f)  desire 
for  a  career  on  earth  under  different  conditions  would  persistently 
check  the  disciplinary  process  ;  (g)  exact  justice  could  hardly  be  se- 
cured ;  (h)  the  discipline  itself  would  be  insufficiently  varied  and  co- 
pious ;  (i)  there  would  be  no  advance  in  the  successive  races  on  earth. 

"There  remains,  then,  the  last  alternative,  a  series  of  Reincarna- 
tions, or,  in  other  words,  that  the  enduring  principle  of  the  man,  en- 
dowed during  each  interval  between  two  earth-lives  with  the  results 
achieved  in  the  former  of  them,  shall  return  for  further  experience 
and  effort." 

The  author  then  proceeds  to  show  how  all  of  the  ob- 
jections are  met  and  fully  satisfied  through  Reincarnation ; 
thus  : 

"Only  through  Reincarnation  can  knowledge  of  human  life  be 
made  exhaustive,  or  opportunity  afforded  for  the  development  of  all 
those  faculties  which  can  only  be  developed  during  incarnation. 
Only  through  reincarnations  is  the  unsatisfying  nature  of  material 
life  fully  demonstrated  ;  the  subordination  of  the  lower  to  the 


PHILOSOPHIC    AND    LOGICAL    EVIDENCE.  9! 

higher  nature  made  possible  ;  the  meaning  of  Universal  Brotherhood 
become  apparent ;  the  desire  for  other  forms  of  earthly  experience  be 
extinguished  by  undergoing  them  ;  exact  justice  meted  to  every  man  ; 
variety  and  copiousness  to  the  discipline  we  all  require,  be  secured  ; 
and  a  continuous  advance  in  the  successive  races  of  men  ensured." 

Justice,  especially,  is  most  completely  set  aside  by  any 
other  theory.  According  to  Christian  dogmas,  a  child  who 
dies  at  birth  is  surely  "  saved."  It  has  had  none  of  the 
experience  and  temptations  of  its  fellow-mortals,  yet  its 
future  happiness  is  eternally  assured  because  of  the  acci-. 
dental  cutting  short  of  its  earthly  career.  A  Christian 
who  really  believes  this  ought  to  pray  for  death  for  his 
children,  and  return  devout  thanks  when  the  grave 
closes  over  their  little  forms.  For  what  are  the  pleasures  of 
one  brief  life  compared  with  the  eternal  happiness  which, 
according  to  their  belief,  awaits  the  child  just  beyond  the 
grave,  and  which  it  runs  the  hazard  of  losing  if  its  exist- 
ence is  prolonged  sufficiently  for  it  to  encounter  the  many 
temptations  which  must  await  it  in  the  event  of  its  surviv- 
ing? Nor  is  the  Spiritist  happier  in  his  efforts  to  explain 
away  the  inconsistencies  of  one  life.  He  claims  that  ex- 
perience may  be  acquired  by  proxy  in  a  spiritual  realm. 
This  postulates  the  absurdity  of  attaining  material  knowl- 
edge under  spiritual  environments.  But  were  this  possi-  ( 
ble,  it  still  banishes  both  method  and  reason  from  the 
scheme  of  evolution,  for  there  is  either  no  necessity  for  the 
spirit  to  incarnate  at  all,  or  else  the  coming  to  earth  for  a 
few  moments,  as  in  the  case  of  babes  who  die  at  birth, 
cannot  fulfill  the  requirements.  And  this  without  speak- 
ing of  the  injustice  of  compelling  one  soul  to  undergo  the 
pains  of  mortal  experience  in  order  that  it  may  teach  an- 
other to  whom  accident  or  disease  denied  opportunity. 


92  A    STUDY    OF    THE   SOUL. 

Either  this  world  is  one  of  chance,  "where  Chaos  umpire 
sits,  and  by  decision  adds  but  to  the  confusion,"  or  else  all 
one-birth  theories  must  be  set  aside,  as  not  accounting  for 
even  a  small  portion  of  the  observed  facts. 

The  same  fatal  defects  apply  to  the  materalistic  theory 
of  the  non-existence  of  a  soul  independently  of  the  body. 
For  admitting  that  experience  and  wisdom  might  be 
transmitted  to  the  race  as  its  heritage,  yet  the  race  itself 
must  eventually  perish,  and  with  it  all  the  fruits  of  the  suf- 
ferings of  its  units.  Materialism  merely  removes  the  diffi- 
culty one  step,  and  leaves  life  none  the  less  a  farce  be- 
cause this  now  assumes  colossal  proportions.  It  is  quite 
as  unjust  for  the  race  to  die,  even  after  millions  of  years, 
as  it  is  for  the  individual  to  do  so  after  one  life.  Both  re- 
sults argue  the  non-existence  of  any  design  in  nature,  and 
relegate  the  whole  problem  of  human  life  to  either  pure 
chance,  or  else  the  barbarous  whim  of  some  Jehovah,  who 
creates  and  destroys  men  and  worlds  as  the  humor  suits 
him.  No  sane  man  can  deny  the  evidence  of  intelligent 
design  in  nature.  His  imperfect  physical  senses  make 
this  plain,  and  the  most  powerful  microscope  or  telescope 
only  adds  to  the  evidence  already  at  hand.  The  more 
deeply  one  searches  the  more  abundant  the  proofs  be- 
come. This  is  admittedly  the  law  of  the  physical  plane. 
Having  reached  the  mental  or  spiritual  plane,  does  nature 
now  suddenly  fly  in  the  face  of  her  former  methods  and 
hand  the  guiding  reins  over  to  blind  fate  or  blinder 
chance  ? 

Materialism  is  particularly  unhappy,  also,  in  applying  its 
negative  hypothesis  to  its  own  grandest  and  most  sweep- 
ing generalizations.  It  proudly  announces  that  ex  nihilo 
nihil  fit,  and  then  assumes  an  intelligent,  reasoning  soul  as 


PHILOSOPHIC    AND    LOGICAL    EVIDENCE.  93 

starting  into  existence  "out  of  nothing,"  and  departing 
into  the  same  unreasonable  and  impossible  limbo  when 
certain  processes  pertaining  to  the  bodily  form  cease  to  be 
active.  The  indestructibility  of  matter,  the  correlation  of 
force,  the  conservation  of  energy,  tKe  law  of  evolution — 
all  are  in  hopeless  irreconcilability  with  the  materialistic 
theory,  as  they  also  are  to  the  one-birth  hypothesis. 
Matter,  force,  and  intelligence  are,  as  has  been  pointed 
out,  but  three  aspects  of  the  One  Reality,  the  CAUSE- 
LESS CAUSE,  and  their  separation  under  any  condition 
is  absolutely  unthinkable.  If  matter  is  indestructible, 
then1  the  material  base  of  the  soul  is  indestructible;  if 
force  is  always  conserved,  then  this  includes  psychic  or 
soul  force;  if  energy  is  eternal  in  its  action,  then  intel- 
lectual energy  cannot  be  excluded;  if  evolution  be  a  fact 
in  nature,  then  it  includes  the  larger  fact  that  its  processes 
are  necessarily  infinite  in  duration. 

But  materialism  fancies  it  sees  a  loophole  for  avoiding 
these  conclusions  in  the  fact  that  matter,  force,  and  energy 
reappear  as  things  apparently  differing  from  their  former 
modes  of  manifestation.  Granted ;  but  these  apparent 
differences  are  only  the  masks  which  the  one  actor  as- 
sumes upon  taking  differing  parts.  It  is  the  same  actor, 
whose  real  identity  is  always  one  throughout  the  entire 
performance.  It  is  not  claimed  by  Theosophy  that  the 
soul  functions  in  the  same  manner  when  using  the  sense 
organs  of  the  body  as  it  does  when  this  limitation  is  no 
longer  interposed.  But  it  is  always  the  soul,  and  nothing 
else,  although  its  phenomena  are  necessarily  modified  by 
the  form  of  matter  with  which  it  is  temporarily  associated. 
Heat  and  light  are  none  the  less  one  because  differing 
conditions  cause  them  to  display  differing  modes  of  mo- 


94  A    STUDY    OF    THE    SOUL. 

tion;  and  no  mode  of  motion,  which  links  the  material 
aspect  of  nature  to  the  spiritual,  has  ever  been  traced  to  a 
transmutation  into  any  form  of  intelligence.  The  two  are 
opposite  facets  of  the  ONE,  and  can  never  interchange  on 
the  plane  of  manifestation.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  the 
soul  must  persist  as  intelligence;  its  force  can  only  be 
conserved  by  that  which  is  essentially  itself  in  properties. 
Scientists  claim  that  atoms  of  matter  can  never  escape 
from  the  laws  of  affinity;  that  atoms  of  iron,  for  instance, 
will  ever  be  attracted  to  iron  atoms,  and  that  no  power 
can  destroy  that  particular  property  which  constitutes  the 
atom  iron,  instead  of,  for  example,  gold,  although  it  may 
be  so  buried  among  other  atoms  as  to  be  entirely  indis- 
tinguishable by  our  coarse  physical  senses.  So  intelli- 
gence must  follow  the  same  law,  by  all  the  evidence  of 
analogy.  The  soul  represents,  in  its  "  I  am  I"  manifesta- 
tion, an  ultimate  division — if  we  may  be  allowed  the 
term — of  intelligence,  and  must  retain  its  "  I  am  I"  quali- 
ties under  whatever  associations  it  may  find  itself;  just  as 
truly,  as  reasonably,  and  as  certainly  as  that  the  ultimate 
material  atom  whose  properties  constitute  it  iron  can  never 
be  destroyed  nor  changed  into  something  which  is  not  iron. 
If  the  one  is  law  on  the  material  plane,  the  other  is  equally 
law  on  the  psychic.  The  physical  atom  represents  the 
unit  of  matter;  the  "  I  am  I"  represents  the  unit  of  con- 
sciousness. From  both,  the  idea  of  magnitude  or  ex- 
tension in  space  is  excluded.  Certainly,  the  "I  am  I" 
can  not  be  conceived  as  limited  by  the  size  or  any  other 
physical  qualities  of  any  body  with  which  it  is  associated. 
It  is,  as  we  have  said,  the  unit  of  Consciousness — the  true 
basis  of  all  manifestations  of  intelligence  in  nature,  as 
the  atom  is  the  unit  of  matter,  and  the  physical  basis  of 
all  material  forms. 


PHILOSOPHIC    AND    LOGICAL    EVIDENCE.  9$ 

So  with  materialistic  concepts  of  evolution.  As  we 
have  pointed  out,  there  is  just  as  great  a  defect  in  logic, 
and  as  fatal  a  disagreement  between  the  hypothesis  and 
the  fact  that  design  pervades  every  department  of  nature, 
in  annihilating  a  race,  as  there  is  in  predicating  the  anni- 
hilation of  the  individual  soul.  If  uncounted  millions  of 
individuals  are  to  be  sacrificed  to  perfect  a  glorious  race 
only  for  this,  too,  to  be  ultimately  annihilated,  then  the 
evil  and  unreason  of  creation  are  only  magnified,  not 
removed. 

But  once  admit  the  fact  of  reincarnation,  and  observe 
how  the  apparent  chaos  of  injustice  changes  into  the  most 
beautiful  harmony.  Apparently  discordant  and  irreconcil- 
able phenomena  are  marshaled  into  orderly  array  ;  confu- 
sion and  injustice  disappear,  and  life  assumes  a  deeper 
and  more  significant  meaning.  The  terrible  inequalities 
of  birth,  utterly  inexplicable  by  the  single-birth,  and  still 
more  so  by  the  materialistic  hypothesis,  are  shown  to  be 
the. result  of  causes  set  in  operation  by  the  soul  itself  in 
former  incarnations,  and  not  the  careless  or  stupid  inca- 
pacity of  some  personal  god  playing  at  creation,  and 
making  a  sad  mess  of  it.  The  wretch  born  of  drunken 
and  vicious  parents,  amid  such  surroundings  as  make  vir- 
tue practically  a  miracle,  foredoomed  to  a  life  of  want 
and  woe,  has  created  such  attractions  in  former  lives  as 
render  it  impossible  for  him  to  be  born  under  any  other 
conditions.  No  cruel  fate  nor  blind  chaince  has  been  the 
slightest  factor  in  bringing  about  the  result.  Just  as 
surely  as  the  magnet  turns  to  the  north,  so  surely  will  the 
helpless  soul  be  drawn  to  those  parents  having  the 
greatest  sum  of  similar  attractions.  The  acid  poured 
freely  into  a  vessel  containing  a  solution  of  a  hundred 


9°"  A    STUDY    OF   THE   SOUL. 

alkaline  bases  will  with  unerring  certainty  combine  with 
that,  and  with  that  only,  for  which  it  has  the  greatest 
affinity.  How  much  more  surely,  then,  will  the  soul  seek 
out  its  strongest  affinities  at  the  moment  of  reincarnation 
than  the  so-called  unconscious  atoms  on  a  plane  so  far 
beneath  it  ! 

There  is  no  other  theory  which  will  account  for  the  in- 
finite variations  of  character  which  appear  from  the  very 
moment  of  birth.  To  say  nothing  of  our  material  en- 
vironments, to  omit  all  notice  of  the  manifest  injustice 
which  SENDS  equally'  helpless  souls  to  rich  or  poor,  to 
civilized  or  cannibalistic,  to  black  or  white  parents,  or  any 
of  the  other  infinite  variations  of  merely  physical  circum- 
stances, we  do  not  start  fair  in  the  race  from  a  moral  and 
intellectual  standpoint.  One  child  is  born  with  genius, 
another  an  idiot — both  of  parents  of  about  the  same  men- 
tal capacity,  it  may  be.  What  cause  brought  about  this 
great  and  unjust  difference,  if  neither  lived  before?  One 
infant  comes  into  the  world  handicapped  by  a  sullen  tem- 
per and  vicious  disposition ;  another,  with  the  most  lovable 
traits.  If  it  is  claimed,  as  materialism  erroneously  asserts, 
that  each  inherits  its  peculiarities  from  its  parents,  even 
then  how  can  reason  accept  the  black  injustice  which  sends 
one  soul  to  the  pure  parents,  and  the  other  to  the  impure 
ones,  if  neither  had  had  any  previous  voice  in  the  matter  ? 
We  must  accept  reincarnation  if  we  would  ever  hope  to 
solve  the  awful  inequalities  which  attend  upon  birth.  No 
man  could  find  it  in  his  heart  to  condemn  his  child  to  be 
born  a  poor,  innocent  victim  of  such  fiendish  caprices,  such 
an  unavoidable  life  of  temptation,  suffering,  degradation 
and  death,  followed  by  an  eternal  hell,  as  birth  to  vicious, 
barbarous,  or  even  ignorant  parents  almost  surely  pre- 


PHILOSOPHIC    AND    LOGICAL    EVIDENCE.  97 

supposes;  yet  Christians  believe  this  horrible  thing  of  a 
Jehovah  whom  they  claim  to  be  of  infinite  compassion 
and  mercy!  It  is  the  logical  outcome,  however,  of  a  phi- 
losophy whose  most  learned  divines  calmly  discuss  with 
approval  such  topics  as:  "The  Loving  Kindness  of  God 
as  Evidenced  in  the  Eternal  Punishment  of  Sinners!"* 
and  "  The  Greatness  of  God  as  shown  in  the  SLOW 
Christianizing  of  the  Earth  !"f 

Again,  as  we  have  seen,  the  fact  that  no  two  individuals 
of  the  entire  human  race  were  ever  born  with  the  same 
character,  or  ever  acquired  the  same,  is  one  of  the 
strongest  logical  proofs  of  the  truth  of  reincarnation. 
Each  babe  comes  into  the  world  with  the  stamp  of  its 
former  desires,  appetites  and  experiences  indelibly  im- 
pressed upon  it  in  the  form  of  this  individual  character. 
Materialism  claims  ante-natal  influence  within  the  womb 
as  the  cause  of  this  infinite  divergence  in  human  character; 
but  the  proof  that  this  is  not  so  is  too  abundant.  Were 
there  none  other,  the  cases  of  twin  births  would  suffice; 
for  here  the  ante-natal  influence  must  be  absolutely  the 
same,  yet  from  the  hour  of  birth  twin  infants  often  show 
the  most  marked  differences  in  disposition  and  char- 
acter. It  is  true  that  most  twins,  for  obvious  reasons — 
chief  among  which  is  the  affinity  which  drew  both  to  the 
same  parents  at  the  same  time — display  marked  similarity 
in  mental  and  physical  characteristics;  but  a  working 
hypothesis  must  be  one  which  explains  all  the  phenomena, 
and  these  occasional  divergences  completely  nullify  ante- 
natal influence  as  a  factor. 

*Irenics.    Jas.  Strong,  S.  T.  D.,  LIv.  D. 

fA  paper  by  a  Minister  in  a  Christian  magazine.     Indexed  in  "The 
Review  of  Reviews." 


98  A    STUDY    OF    THE    SOUL. 

The  almost  infinite  differences  in  human  character 
have  a  most  profound  bearing  upon  any  philosophy  of  life, 
and  can  only  be  explained  by  admitting  the  fact  of  re- 
incarnation; for  the  character  as  displayed  by  babes  from 
the  moment  of  birth,  and  which  throughout  life  separates 
each  man  from  all  other  men,  is  the  sum  of  the  experiences 
the  Ego,  or  soul,  has  already  undergone  and  assimilated, 
and  which  experiences  remain  as  indelible  impressions 
upon  and  modifications  of  the  soul's  conscious  area,  and 
constitute  the  differences  which  distinguish  it  from  other 
souls.  Had  all  souls  similar  experiences  character  would 
be  inconceivable,  for  all  would  be  alike. 

Much  of  the  desires  and  passions  which  constitute  the 
larger  portion  of  the  soul's  activities  at  any  given  time  are 
necessarily  suspended  by  the  change  called  death,  and 
therefore  remain  dormant,  or  latent,  until  it  is  compelled 
by  its  karmic  affinities  to  again  seek  incarnation,  when 
they  become  active  with  the  opportunity  afforded  by  a 
new  body.  Just  as  a  man's  passions  are  held  in  abeyance 
by  sleep,  to  regain  all  their  former  activity  upon  awaken- 
ing, so  all  his  desires  and  appetites  which  are  so  gross 
and  earthly  as  to  lie  below  the  planes  of  Devachan,*  re- 
main inoperative,  but  by  no  means  destroyed,  until  he 
again  awakens  to  earth  life  in  his  new  dwelling.  It  is  for 
this  reason  that  "  character"  is  so  important  an  element  in 
reincarnation.  It  is  simply  the  old  affinities  man  has  him- 
self created  acting  upon  all  planes ;  determining  the  kind  of 
body  in  which  he  shall  find  his  new  habitation ;  the 
family,  the  nation,  the  race,  the  social  station,  the  intel- 
lectual trend,  the  predisposition  to  disease  or  long  life, 

*DEVACHAN — The  subjective  cycle  intervening  between  two 
earth  lives.  See  chapter  on  Post-mortem  States. 


PHILOSOPHIC    AND    LOGICAL    EVIDENCE.  99 

and  every  other  conceivable  limitation  in  the  environment 
or  circumstances  of  the  new  life.  All  these  limitations 
are  effects  resulting  from  causes  set  in  operation  in  former 
lives,  which  causes  have,  under  the  law  of  Karma,  or 
Cause  and  Effect,  delivered  his  soul,  a  helpless,  uncon- 
scious captive,  to  do  with  whatsoever  this  Supreme  Law 
shall  determine.  For  during  the  subjective,  or  de- 
vachanic,  interim  between  earth  lives  the  human  will  is  in 
complete  abeyance.  It  becomes  a  potency  during  earth 
life  because  man  has  acquired  self-consciousness  upon  this 
plane — has,  under  that  which  Eastern  philosophy  terms 
the  Great  Heresy,  separated  Ego  from  Non-Ego,  and  in 
consequence  of  this  delusion  too  often  opposed  his  will  to 
that  of  nature.  Not  so,  in  devachan.  Here  only  the  spir- 
itual will  is  consciously  functioning  and  all  the  unex- 
pended material  or  sensuous  causes  generated  in  past 
earth  lives,  and  especially  in  the  last  of  these,  exert  their 
full  affinities  entirely  below  the  present  conscious  plane  of 
the  Ego,  and  it  only  awakens  from  its  devachanic  exist- 
ence to  find  itself  in  a  body,  which,  under  the  karmic  law 
of  Cause  ancl^Effect,  is  thus,  unconsciously  to  it,  predeter- 
mined. 

During  one  incarnation  the  thousands  of  thoughts, 
emotions,  and  mental  states  included  in  our  every-day  life, 
and  constituting  that  thread  or  consciousness  which  mate- 
rialism insists  is  all  there  is  at  the  base  of  our  "  I  am  I," 
constantly  crystallize  into  habits,  desires,  and  instinctive 
tendencies  to  assume  certain  mental  attitudes  to  the  ex- 
clusion of  others;  all  of  which  enters  into  the  composition 
of  our  personal  character.  This  latter,  in  its  larger  degree, 
is  again  crystallizing  into  our  true  or  individual  character, 
or  that  of  our  reincarnating  Ego,  or  soul.  The  memory  of 


100  A    STUDY    OF    THE    SOUL. 

the  myriad  states  of  consciousness  by  which  this  perma- 
nent character  is  acquired  is  left  behind  at  each  death  of 
the  body;  but  the  result,  the  sum  total,  is  carried  over  at 
reincarnation  to  the  new  account.  The  statue  preserves 
no  record  of  the  ten  thousand  strokes  of  the  chisel  by 
which  it  was  chipped  into  shape,  yet  the  result  is  none  the 
less^  beautiful  because  of  this. 

f Reincarnation,  then,  affords  the  key,  and  the  only  key, 
to  the  mysteries  of  the  inequalities  of  birth ;  for  the  great 
divergence  of  character  and  mental  capacity,  ranging  from 
genius  to  idiocy,  at  birth,  accounts  for  the  presence  of  evil 
in  the  world,  explains  "original  sin,"  makes  immortality 
reasonable  by  extending  the  existence  of  the  soul  to  an 
infinite  past  as  well  as  to  an  eternal  future.  The  last 
point  mentioned — existence  in  both  directions — avoids  the 
absurdity  of  postulating  a  semp-  or  half-eternal  being — an 
existence  with  but  one  end,  which  a  soul  created  at  birth 
and  having  immortality  from  that  point  presupposes.  A 
line  must  have  two  ends,  whether  it  be  physical  or 
spiritual. 

Reincarnation,  also,  is  in  perfect  accord  with  the  sci- 
entific conceptions  of  the  persistence  of  force  and  the  con- 
servation of  energy;  and  shows  how  a  cause,  once  set  in 
motion,  must  have  its  effect;  that  energies  generated  in 
one  life  cannot  be  cut  short  by  death,  but  must  find  ex- 
pression in  a  future  one ;  that  the  affinity  which  guides  a 
soul  into  the  most  fitting  body  to  express  its  charac- 
teristics is  but  an  exemplification  of  the  law  of  energy  or 
force  taking  the  direction  of  the  least  resistance. 

No  effort  is  lost;  soul  force,  like  all  other  forms  offeree, 
is  ever  conserved.  The  soul  which  has  longed  and  strug- 
gled for  a  desired  result,  finding  its  efforts  cut  short  by 


PHILOSOPHIC    AND    LOGICAL    EVIDENCE.  IOI 

death  when,  perhaps,  on  the  very  point  of  realization,  does 
not  lose  the  fruit  of  its  toil  and  self-denial.  The  energy 
so  generated  will  accompany,  guide,  and  control  the  next 
birth  so  as  to  continue  its  expression  in  one  unbroken  line. 
No  effort,  whether  for  good  or  evil,  can  be  without  its  re- 
sults. It  is  a  cause,  and  in  the  eternal  harmony  of  nature 
must  have  its  corresponding  effect. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

REINCARNATION  — THE      SCIENTIFIC      EVI- 
DENCE. 

BUT  aside  from  all  philosophic  necessities  or  hypoth- 
eses, if  Reincarnation  be  true,  we  shall  find  evidence 
of  it  in  nature,  for  natura  non  saltet.  At  the  outset  of  this 
portion  of  our  inquiry,  we  see  that  the  repetition  of  her 
processes  is  universal.  In  the  mineral  kingdom,  the  sand, 
formed  from  the  crumbling  rocks  of  the  mountain's  side, 
re-forms  into  stony  stratifications,  at  the  bottom  of  the 
sea,  to  be  again  upheaved,  and  reprint  the  geologic  page 
in  future  ages.  Tree  or  plant,  animal  or  human,  each  is 
reproduced  "after  its  kind,"  in  an  apparently  endless  suc- 
cession. Embryologists  trace  the  history  of  the  incal- 
culable periods  during  which  the  physical  form  of  man 
evolved  up  through  the  lower  kingdoms  by  means  of  the 
repetition  of  each  successive  stage,  in  gestation.  Cell, 
fish,  reptile,  bird,  animal,  man — each  step  upwarcj  is 
repeated,  though  the  necessity  for  this  would  seem  to  have 
ceased  with  the  completion  of  the  more  perfect  design. 
Man  casts  aside  his  'prentice  efforts  once  he  succeeds, 
but  nature  ever  follows  the  familiar  pathways. 

Yet  the  countless  elemental  hosts  and  hierarchies  of 
"  nature  Spirits,"  engaged  in  carrying  out  the  practical 
aspect  of  evolution  do  not  pause  at  the  simple  reproduc- 
tion of  the  old  form.  Having  reached  the  end  of  beaten 
paths,  each  still  struggles  onward,  though  its  progress  is 
as  little  perceptible  as  the  impress  of  a  single  wave  upon 
the  beach  which,  nevertheless,  is  slowly  wearing  away. 


THE    SCIENTIFIC    EVIDENCE.  103 

This  gradual  perfection  of  type  also  shows  that  idea  pre- 
cedes form,  and  that  nature  is  not  working  blindly,  under 
the  impulse  of  unintelligent  force.  Ages  were  occupied 
in  so  modifying  the  gills  of  water-breathing  mammalia 
that  they  could  live  in  the  purer,  rarer  atmosphere  of  the 
earth;  yet  is  it  not  evident  that  the  idea  of  the  perfected 
bird  was  present  and  potent  during  the  whole  process  ? 
Is  it  not  also  evident  that  the  idea  of  perfected  man,  with 
all  his  wonderful  organization,  was  present  when  the 
first  protoplasmic  cell  responded  to  the  force  of  the 
inner,  energizing  thought  ? 

It  will  be  universally  admitted  that  it  is  the  idea,  and 
not  the  form,  which  is  preserved;  the  point  of  dispute  is 
as  to  the  method  by  which  the  idea  is  carried  onward. 
The  materialist  avers  that  it  is  due  to  physical  procreation 
alone;  that,  for  instance,  if  the  dove  should  become  un- 
fertile, the  idea  of  it  would  perish  off  the  earth  with  the 
cessation  of  its  physical  existence.  The  Theosophist  de- 
nies this,  and  declares  that  if  every  dove  on  earth  were  to 
die  nature  is  amply  able  to  reproduce  the  form  out  of  the 
pre-existing  idea  from  whence  it  evolved  the  species.  The 
materialist  affirms  that  force  and  matter  have,  by  the 
merest  chance,  brought  about  the  evolution  of  form  and 
intelligence;  that  both  these  are  but  properties  of  matter, 
and  are  dissipated  with  the  dissolution  of  the  chemical 
and  vital  forces  which  caused  their  manifestation.  The 
Theosophist  declares  that  spirit,  or  consciousness,  under- 
lies and  is  the  basis  of  all  form,  and  passes  from  form  to 
form  as  these  decay  or  become  unfitted  for  its  further  oc- 
cupation. As  Plato  declares,  "The  soul  weaves  ever  her 
garments  anew."  To  interrogate  nature  as  to  her 
methods  of  taking  these  subjective  steps  in  pursuit  of  her 
objects  constitutes  the  motive  of  this  chapter. 


104  A    STUDY    OF    THE   SOUL. 

Our  first  inquiry  must  be  as  to  the  identity  of  con- 
sciousness when  passing  from  vehicle  to  vehicle.  That 
is,  does  the  same  conscious  entity  ensoul  successive 
bodies?  From  the  human  standpoint,  the  answer  to 
this  question  is  all  important.  To  the  kingdoms  below 
man  we  look  for  the  proof  of  the  affirmative  of  the 
question,  as  under  the  law  of  evolution  there  must  be 
a  preparation  for,  or  a  beginning  of,  the  processes  nec- 
essary. 

It  would  seem  that  every  center  of  consciousness 
forming  within  the  All-Consciousness,  or  Over  Soul/ 
retains  its  individuality  under  all  circumstances,  except 
two,  which  two  are  practically  one.  These  are :  (a)  the 
failure  to  maintain  itself  in  the  struggle  with  nature's 
warring  elements,  and  a  consequent  loss  of  identity 
as  an  entity;  and,  (b)  the  passing  through  and  beyond 
the  Cycle  of  Necessity,  and  returning  laden  with  the 
spoils  of  conscious  victories  to  the  all-embracing  Over 
Soul,  which  latter  process  involves  no  real  loss  of  indi- 
vidual identity.  Certainly,  up  to  the  point  where 
consciousness  is  developed  sufficiently  to  take  control 
of  its  own  destinies,  there  can  hardly  be  any  lapsing 
back  predicated;  for  the  original  Energy  which  set 
the  evolutionary  forces  in  operation — the  Outbreathing 
of  the  Great  Breath — can  not  fail  before  this  stage, 
because  the  force  is  practically  omnipotent.  And  after  this 
the  will  of  the  innumerable  centers  of  developed  con- 
sciousness represent  and  stand  instead  of  that  original 
Energy  which  can  not  be  diminished,  and  of  which  they 
in  their  totality  are  the  undiminished  correlations.  Yet, 
as  on  the  material  plane,  certain  laya  centers — of  worlds, 
even — may  lose  themselves  by  a  succession  of  apposite 


THE   SCIENTIFIC    EVIDENCE.  1 05 

unfavorable  causes,  so  there  can  arise  in  the  evolution 
of  every  soul  destructive  causes,  set  up  by  itself,  which 
end  in  its  annihilation  as  a  self-conscious  center  of 
energy. 

From  these  premises  the  inference  is  justified  that 
an  entity  representing  an  apparent  separation  of  con- 
sciousness, whether  its  outer  physical  clothing  be  a 
plant,  a  tree,  an  animal,  or  the  human  form,  maintains 
its  individuality  throughout  the  major  half,  if  not  the 
whole,  of  the  planetary  cycle,  or  minor  manvantara; 
that  is,  that  the  consciousness  (elemental  in  this  c^se) 
of  a  tree  reincarnates  or  re-embodies  itself  in  another 
tree;  and  similarly  for  all  organisms  throughout  animated 
nature.  For  the  monadic  base,  the  Ray  from  the  Cause- 
less Cause,  upon  which  all  shades  and  grades  of  differen- 
tiated consciousness  rest,  must  be  absolutely  colorless.  It 
is  only  by  material  experience  or  expression  that  it  gets 
this.  But  having  once  received  a  definite  stamp  in.  any 
kingdom,  as  was  pointed  out  in  the  study  of  the  Indi- 
vidualization  of  the  Soul,  it  has  acquired  individuality  to 
this  extent,  and  individuality  thus  impressed  upon  it  can 
not  be  removed.  It  may  be  added  to,  as  when  vegetable 
consciousness  is  added  to  mineral,  and  animal  to  this;  but 
to  remove  it  is  unthinkable.  Therefore,  it  logically  fol- 
lows that  the  consciousness  of  a  tree  or  plant  impressed 
upon  a  monadic  base  renders  it  impossible .  for  this 
monadic  center  to  again  re-enter  the  mineral  king- 
dom, just  as  the  human  consciousness,  once  attained, 
renders  it  impossible  for  the  human  soul  to  again  reincar- 
nate in  an  animal,  or  any  lower  form.  It  would  be  mak- 
ing the  lesser  contain  the  greater — a  mathematical  impos- 
sibility and  logical  absurdity.  For  this  reason,  conscious- 


106  A   STUDY    OF   THE    SOUL. 

ness,  having  reached  any  definite  point  of  expression,  can 
only  remain  stationary,  in  opposition  to  the  evolutionary 
impulse,  or  go  forward  in  harmony  with  this. 

We  have  thus  the  strongest  and  most  cogent  reason  for 
predicating  the  identity  of  any  monadic  expression  of  con- 
sciousness when  passing  from  form  to  form,  upon  the  dis- 
integration or  death  of  these.  For  the  consciousness  of  a 
bear,  for  instance,  to  lapse  back  into  a  universal  reservoir 
of  conscious  force,  as  taught  by  some  materialistic  hypoth- 
eses, implies  the  destruction  of  all  those  emotions  and  in- 
stin^ts  which  distinguish  the  character  of  the  animal. 
Now,  consciousness  is  only  related  to  the  material  plane 
in  terms  of  motion  or  force,  and  this  is  universally  admitted 
to  be  indestructible.  Then  how  is  it  possible  to  destroy 
that  force  which  expresses  animal  instinct?  It  cannot  be 
destroyed;  it  must  find  expression  on  the  animal  plane, 
and  in  the  bear,  or  some  closely  allied  species,  until  it  is 
transmuted  by  evolution,  and  the  consequent  widening  of 
its  consciousness  into  higher  forms  of  conscious  expres- 
sion. 

There  is,  thus,  an  absolute  and  logical  necessity  for  spe- 
cific reincarnation,  of  plant  in  plant,  animal  in  animal,  and 
man  in  man,  and  it  only  remains  to  examine  the  methods 
which  nature  adopts  to  secure  this  end. 

It  is  evident  that  the  universal  repetition  of  idea  in 
form  throughout  all  nature,  to  which  we  have  called 
attention,  is  but  the  expression  of  a  deep  and  basic  law. 
This  law  is  that  all  existence  proceeds  in  cycles,  each 
having  its  objective  and  its  subjective  arc.  Eastern  occult 
philosophy  terms  the  action  of  this  universal  law  the 
"  Great  Breath,"  a  definition  in  which  Theosophy  coin- 
cides and  adopts.  That  finite  time  is  related  to  Infinite 


THE   SCIENTIFIC    EVIDENCE.  IQ? 

Duration  by  means  of  these  cycles  of  existence,  is  a  great 
and  all-embracing  truth,  without  the  proper  recognition  of 
which  no  intelligent  conception  of  reincarnation  can  be 
formulated.  From  the  major  manvantara,  occupying 
unthinkable  eons  of  years,  to  the  life  of  a  single  cell,  last- 
ing, in  many  instances,  but  a  few  moments,  the  rhythmic 
flow  of  motion  and  consciousness  from  without  within,  and 
from  within  without,  is  absolute,  universal,  without  excep- 
tion. Objective  life  succeeds  subjective  life,  subjective 
life  is  followed  by  objective,  in  an  eternal  succession. 
The  chain  cannot  be  broken;  it  is  as  continuous  as  Dura- 
tion itself. 

In  the  vegetable  kingdom,  this  ebb  and  flow  of  con- 
scious force  is  within  material  limits  largely,  and  easily 
studied.  Especially  in  the  annuals  of  cold  or  temperate 
climates  is  this  flux  and  efflux  plainly  apparent.  Every 
year  a  large  portion  of  the  material  form  dies  down.  All 
the  beautiful  imagery  and  design  expressed  in  leaf,  stalk, 
and  flower  perish  as  completely  as  though  they  had  never 
existed.  The  life  force  has  ebbed,  yet  not  entirely. 
Root,  rhizoma,  or  bulb  hold  in  subjective  embrace  every 
detail,  even  to  the  most  minute;  and  when  the  subjective 
cycle  is  completed  the  inner,  subjective  entity  thrills, 
expands,  clothes  itself  again  with  its  vestment  of  cells, 
and  reproduces  the  dead  plant  in  all  its  former  perfection 
and  beauty.  Every  such  a  reproduction  by  a  root  or  bulb 
is  a  genuine,  specific  reincarnation  of  the  same  elemental 
center  of  consciousness,  or  "elemental  soul,"*  in  the  same 

*A  "soul,"  or  vehicle  of  consciousness  [see  Introduction],  is 
termed  "elemental"  when  below  the  plane  of  self-consciousness; 
"human,"  when  it  reaches  this  plane;  "divine,"  when  it  passes  it. 
Every  entity  in  the  Universe  either  "is,  was,  or  prepares  to  become, 
a  man." 


108  A   STUDY    OF   THE    SOUL. 

plant,  yet  we  fail  to  recognize  this.  To  us,  nothing  un- 
usual has  taken  place — nor  has  there — because  of  our 
familiarity  with  the  phenomenon.  We  say  the  plant  has 
"grown"  again  from  the  root.  But,  in  growing,  it  has  fol- 
lowed a  definite  plan  and  idea.  Was  this  hidden  in  the 
shriveled  mass  of  matter,  which  gave  no  indication  of  its 
presence  whatever?  Doubtless;  but  how?  The  form 
was  not  hidden ;  only  the  elemental  entity  in  its  subjective 
arc,  or  "pralaya,"  representing  the  "idea"  of  the  plant. 
In  other  words,  the  plant  has  been  living  a  subjective  life, 
without  losing  one  iota  of  that  distinguishing  character 
which  made  it  a  denizen  of  a  definite  genus,  family,  and 
species.  Because  of  the  apparent  clinging  to  material 
form  in  root,  bulb,  or  seed,  the  reality  and  importance  of 
the  subjective  arc. of  the  existence  of  the  plant  entity  has 
been  lost  sight  of.  There  has  not  been  that  total  separa- 
tion of  subjective  from  objective  which  we  find  upon 
higher  planes.  There  has  been  a  preparing  for,  an  experi- 
ment in,  subjective  consciousness  without  entirely  aban- 
doning the  material  vestment,  which  is  just  what  analogy 
would  have  led  us  to  expect  in  this  kingdom,  for  natura 
non  saltet. 

Indeed,  it  would  seem  reasonable  to  suppose  that  it  is 
only  by  clinging  to  some  portion  of  the  material  form  that 
specific  reproduction  would  be  most  practicable  here ;  for 
vegetable,  like  mineral,  consciousness  is  so  little  differen- 
tiated, its  monadic  base  so  general  and  diffused,  that  a 
total  abandonment  of  the  material  form  is  to  be  expected 
to  prove  the  exception  rather  than  the  rule.  Where  plants 
are  reproduced  from  the  seed,  in  many  seeds  plainly,  and 
probably  in  all  if  we  had  the  proper  means  of  examina- 
tion, the  form  of  the  plant  to  be  reproduced  is  already 


THE   SCIENTIFIC    EVIDENCE.  1 09 

partially  expressed  in  terms  of  matter.  Witness  the 
Hindu  emblem  of  immortality,  the  lotus,  and  all 
cotyledonous  plants.  In  fact,  the  essential  part  of  any 
seed  is  the  embryo,  upon  which  one  or  more  leaves  are 
often  capable  of  being  distinguished.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  nature-elementals  can  and  do  really  incarnate  any 
ideal  form  by  starting  from  a  single  cell,  and  that  any  lost 
form  could  be  so  reproduced;  but  the  inquiries  undertaken 
in  this  chapter  do  not  lie  along  this  particular  line.  It  is 
reincarnation  we  are  studying — not  incarnation  in  general 
terms. 

This  incomplete  reincarnation  is  universal  upon  all 
planes,  but  of  course  is  most  markad  in  the  comparatively 
low  vegetable  kingdom.  Every  tree  that  puts  forth  flower 
and  foliage  with  returning  Spring  exemplifies  the  law. 
Ripened  fields  of  grain  proclaim  its  completion;  the 
lichen,  "creeping  up  out  of  the  rock,"  rejoicing  in  its  new 
vesture,  bears  witness  to  the  ebb  and  flow  of  the  Eternal 
Motion,  the  "  Great  Breath,"  the  Force- Aspect  of  the 
Causeless  Cause,  as  it  bears  on  its  bosom  the  myriad  hosts 
of  nature  elementals,  now  clothed  in  objective  form,  now 
resting  in  unconscious  subjective  arcs  of  their  cycles  of 
existence. 

Passing  to  the  animal  kingdom,  we  find  the  evidences 
of  specific  reincarnation  becoming  more  and  more  pro- 
nounced. Other  elements  of  consciousness  have  been 
gradually  added  to  the  colorless  base;  differentiation  has 
advanced  farther,  and  anything  but  specific  individual  re- 
incarnation has  become  more  difficult  in  consequence.  A 
distinct  step,  and  one  not  observed  in  the  vegetable  king- 
dom, is  seen  in  the  metamorphosis  of  insects.  Metamor- 
phosis is,  of  course,  but  another  exemplification  of  the  rep- 


110  A    STUDY    OF    THE   SOUL. 

etition  by  nature  of  steps  already  taken  in  attaining  a  de- 
sired end;  yet  it  is  more.  It  shows  a  deliberate  use  of  the 
old  material,  a  reconstruction  of  a  new  form  from  outworn 
matter  without  permitting  a  dispersion  of  this,  which 
plainly  proves  an  unwillingness  to  enter  subjective  realms 
with  the  material  connection  entirely  severed.  As  this 
connection  was  maintained  in  the  vegetable  kingdom  by 
roots,  seeds,  and  bulbs,  so  here  it  is  accomplished  by 
means  of  larvae,  pupae,  and  perfect  insects.  Between  each 
stage  is  a  condition  of  almost  perfect  subjectivity — a  De- 
vachanic  interlude  from  the  insect  standpoint — followed 
by  the  return  of  the  objective  arc,  which  results  in  reincar- 
nating the  same  individual  in  an  entirely  different  body, 
constructed  out  of  the  old  material.  Form,  function, 
habit,  are  all  so  changed  that  nothing  but  the  evidence 
of  actual  observation  would  convince  us  that  the  beau- 
tiful butterfly  was  the  actual  reincarnation  and  re-embodi- 
ment of  the  repulsive  caterpillar. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  the  preparation  for  metamor- 
phosis, and  its  significance  in  several  directions.  New- 
port, quoted  in  Duncan's  "Transformation  of  Insects," 
thus  describes  the  process: 

"When  a  full-grown  larva  is  preparing  to  change  into  the  pupa 
state,  it  becomes  exceedingly  restless,  ceases  to  eat,  and  diminishes 
much  in  weight.  Many  species  spin  for  themselves  a  covering  of 
silk,  termed  a  cocoon,  or  case,  in  which  they  await  their  transforma- 
tion. Others  prepare  little  cavities  in  the  earth,  and  line  them  with 
silk,  for  the  same  purpose;  and  some  suspend  themselves  by  their 
hindermost  legs  to  the  under  surface  of  a  leaf.  In  each  of  these  in- 
stances the  important  change  takes  place  in  the  same  manner.  Be- 
fore the  larva  thus  prepares  itself  for  metamorphosis,  its  alimentary 
canal  is  completely  evacuated  of  its  contents;  its  body  becomes  dry 
and  shriveled,  and  much  contracted  in  length;  and  certain  enlarge- 


THE    SCIENTIFIC    EVIDENCE.  I  I  1 

ments  at  the  sides  of  the  anterior  segments  indicate  the  now  rapidly 
developing  parts  of  the  future  pupa. 

'  'The  larva  of  the  butterfly  either  fastens  itself  by  a  little  rope  of 
silk  carried  across  its  thorax  to  the  under  surface  of  some  object,  as  a 
ceiling,  etc.,  or  suspends  itself  vertically  by  its  hind  legs,  with  its 
head  directed  downwards,  as  is  the  case  with  the  common  nettle  but- 
terfly Vanessa  urtica.  We  have  watched  the  changes  with  much 
care  in  this  insect,  which  frequently  remains  thus  suspended  for 
more  than  ten  or  twenty  hours  before  the  transformation  takes  place. 
When  that  period  has  arrived,  the  skin  bursts  along  the  back  part  of 
the  first  segment,  or  mesothorax,  and  is  extended  along  the  second 
and  fourth,  while  the  coverings  of  the  head  separate  into  three  pieces. 
The  insect  then  exerts  itself  to  the  utmost  to  extend  the  fissure  along 
the  segments  of  the  abdomen,  and,  in  the  meantime  pressing  its  body 
through  the  opening,  gradually  withdraws  its  antennae  and  legs, 
while  the  skin,  by  successive  contortions  of  the  abdomen,  is  slipped 
backwards,  and  forced  towards  the  extremity  of  the  body,  just  as  a  per- 
son would  slip  off  his  glove  or  stocking.  The  efforts  of  the  insect  to 
entirely  get  rid  of  it  are  very  great;  it  twists  itself  in  every  direction, 
in  order  to  burst  the  skin,  and  when  it  has  exerted  itself  in  this  man- 
ner for  some  time,  twirls  itself  swiftly,  first  in  one  direction  and  then 
in  the  opposite,  until  at  last  the  skin  is  broken  through  and  falls  to 
the  ground,  or  is  forced  to  some  distance.  The  new  pupa  then  hangs 
for  a  few  seconds  at  rest. ' ' 

After  the  formation  of  the  pupa  case,  in  describing 
pupa  life,  the  author  continues: 

"In  all  insects  which  undergo  complete  metamorphosis  this  is  the 
period  of  quiescence  and  entire  abstinence.  Many  species  remain  in 
this  state  during  the  greater  part  of  their  existence,  in  others  it  is  the 
shortest  period  of  their  lives. ' ' 

That  is  to  say  that  all  the  wonderful  changes  which 
transform  a  crawling,  slimy  caterpillar  into  a  glorious  vis- 
ion of  beauty  and  freedom  take  place  in  silence  and  dark- 
ness, "from  within  without,"  in  the  absence  of  all  that 


112  A    STUDY    OF   THE   SOUL. 

food  supply  which  is  so  necessary  to  the  "scientific"  con- 
ception of  the  generation  and  continuation  of  "vital"  force. 
With  how  little  waste  of  matter  nature  accomplishes  this 
conformation  of  external  form  to  internal  idea,  is  shown 
by  the  fact  that  a  pupa  weighing  some  71  grains  immedi- 
ately after  its  transformation  in  August,  in  the  following 
April  weighed  over  67  grains,  "having  thus  lost  but  3.7 
grains  in  the  long  period  of  nearly  eight  months  of  com- 
plete abstinence." 

In  the  higher  planes  of  the  animal  kingdom,  metamor- 
phosis of  the  entire  organization  practically  ceases;  the 
remnants  of  it  which  persist  being  limited  to  organs  rather 
than  bodies,  as  in  the  transformation  of  the  water-breathing 
tadpole  into  the  air-breathing  frog,  through  the  metamor- 
phosis of  the  respiratory  apparatus,  together  with  that  of 
locomotion.  The  long  abstinence  from  food  among 
insects  in  the  pupa  state  is  also  found  in  a  modified  form 
in  some  of  the  higher  vertebratae,  as  in  the  various  hiber- 
nating animals,  and  in  the  fasts  of  reptiles,  in  all  of  which 
the  consciousness  practically  retires  to  subjective  realms. 

Yet  in  this  kingdom  the  most  important  advance  made 
is  in  the  substitution  of  the  egg  for  the  seed  as  a  point 
d'appui  for  the  reincarnating  entity.*  The  clinging  to  the 

*That  is,  the  highest  point  tfappui.  The  fact  that  the  lowly  forms 
of  both  animal  and  vegetable  life  approach  each  other  so  closely  that 
even  the  microscope  oftentimes  distinguishes  with  difficulty  the 
kingdom  to  which  a  given  specimen  belongs,  only  shows  that  entities 
from  either  kingdom  use  the  same  protoplasm  with  almost  identical 
results  in  form-building  in  these  lowly  beginnings.  It  is,  also,  a  mag- 
nificent illustration  and  confirmation  of  the  fact  that  there  is  an  inner 
spiritual  essence,  and  not  an  outer  material  force,  causing  the  primal 
appearance  and  subsequent  evolution  of  form ;  for  under  the  latter 
hypotheses  there  is  no  possible  explanation  why  two  cells  apparently 
molecularly  identical  should  diverge,  the  one  into  the  vegetable,  the 
other  into  the  animal  kingdom. 


THE    SCIENTIFIC    EVIDENCE.  113 

material  form  in  the  latter  has  been  boldly  abandoned,  and 
a  minute  speck  of  protoplasm  substituted.  This  shows  that 
the  entity  has  evolved  to  a  point  of  greater  differentiation — 
has  acquired  greater  confidence,  as  it  were.  It  also  af- 
fords room  for  greater  variation ;  as  the  soul,  whether  ani- 
mal or  human,  is  not  rigidly  bound  by  a  form  already 
partly  constructed  in  advance.  Greater  freedom  is  thus 
afforded  it  in  modifying  its  own  tenement;  and  the  evolu- 
tion not  only  of  more  perfect  forms,  but  of  a  greater  di- 
versity of  organs  in  the  same  form  is  provided  for.  The 
balance  of  evolution  has  distinctly  swung  to  the  spiritual 
or  Conscious-Aspect  of  nature;  the  middle  point  has  been 
reached  in  the  animal  and  passed  in  the  human  kingdom. 

To  sum  up,  it  is  plainly  evident  that  consciousness  en- 
souled in  the  mineral  kingdom  has  the  mineral  stamp  im- 
pressed upon  it,  and  is  limited  by  this  until  it  struggles 
out  as  a  zoophyte  or  lichen,  under  the  pressure  of  the  gen- 
eral evolutionary  impulse.  In  this  kingdom,  reincarnation 
as  a  universal  process  can  only  occur  at  the  birth  of  a  new 
world,  and  every  such  birth  is  a  reincarnation  of  a  pre- 
viously existing  planet  which  has  died.  There  is  no  crea- 
tion in  its  ordinary  sense  possible  in  nature.  Matter, 
Force,  and  Consciousness  are  equally  indestructible,  and 
uncreate. 

In  the  vegetable  kingdom,  specific  reincarnation  of 
plants  takes  place  under  the  ebb  and  flow  of  the  natural, 
cyclic  laws  known  as  the  "  seasons."  In  the  animal,  the 
metamorphosis  of  insects  absolutely  proves  the  re-embodi- 
ment of  the  same  conscious  entity  in  an  entirely  different 
organism,  under  an  inner,  subjective  force,  unaided  by  ex- 
ternal conditions.  And  between  the  creeping  caterpillar 
and  the  beautiful  butterfly  there  is  certainly  a  vaster  dif- 


I  14  A    STUDY    OF   THE   SOUL. 

ference  in  form  and  function  than  is  necessitated  on  any 
plane  by  the  conscious  entity,  or  soul,  merely  passing  from 
body  to  body  through  the  medium  of  intervening  sub- 
jective states. 

Efflux  and  influx,  subjectivity  and  objectivity,  follow 
each  other  in  unending  succession,  and  are  universal  in 
nature.  Life  succeeds  death,  to  again  give  place  to  its  op- 
posite when  the  subjective  arc  of  the  cycle  is  reached. 
The  periods  occupied  by  their  alternations  are  infinitely 
varied,  as  well  as  the  degree  to  which  the  one  state  is  re- 
placed by  the  other.  It  is  easy  to  trace  the  beginning  of 
these  subjective  and  objective  alternations  in  the  vegetable 
kingdom  into  and  through  the  animal,  and  to  observe  them 
becoming  all  the  time  more  pronounced  and,  apparently, 
more  disconnected  from  each  other.  But  we  have  seen 
that  this  disconnection  was  only  apparent,  and  not  real ; 
that  the  same  entity  was  merely  passing  through  the  sub- 
jective arc  of  its  life-spiral  during  the  period  we  variously 
term  root-life,  metamorphosis,  hibernation,  sleep,  and 
death.  It  has  been  shown  that  the  monadic  base,  the  Ray 
from  the  Conscious-Aspect  of  the  Causeless  Cause,  being 
of  necessity  uncolored  and  attributeless,  has  attributes  and 
limitations  impressed  upon  it  by  the  various  material  ex- 
periences it  passes  through,  and  the  widening  of  its  con- 
scious area,  as  a  result  of  this.  We  have  noticed  that  as 
this  consciousness  is  widened  each  addition,  to  the  human 
state  at  least,  increases  limitation  and  intensifies  individ- 
ualization,  so  that  the  range  of  possible  choice  in  reincar- 
nation becomes  all  the  time  more  restricted.  Thus  an 
entity  that  could  choose  from  the  whole  mineral  kingdom, 
in  the  vegetable  might  be  limited  to  a  genus,  in  the  animal 
to  a  species,  and  in  the  human  to  a  family. 


THE    SCIENTIFIC    EVIDENCE.  115 

Now,  if  the  individualization  of  a  tulip,  even,  has  pro- 
ceeded so  far  that  nature  has  expressly  provided  for  sub- 
jective cycles  of  the  same  individual,  by  the  evolution  of  a 
bulb,  how  much  more  reasonable  it  is  that  the  intense  indi- 
vidualization in  man  should  also  be  conserved  by  subjective 
periods  in  his  life  history.  That  the  conditions  limiting 
his  consciousness  in  each  state  are  different  is  no  argu- 
ment against  these  existing.  The  consciousness  of  a  but- 
terfly differs  vastly  from  that  of  a  caterpillar;  nor  does 
the  butterfly  ever  know  of  the  caterpillar  state,  as  far,  at 
least,  as  we  can  judge.  The  two  are  quite  separated  in 
time.  It  logically  follows,  then,  that  the  individualization, 
carried  to  so  marked  an  extent  as  it  is  in  man,  should  be 
provided  with  subjective  periods  in  which  to  assimilate 
and  make  its  own  the  experiences  of  the  last  physical  life. 
It  is  also  reasonable  that  this  experience,  being  so  widely 
varied,  should  be  best  assimilated  under  conditions  of  en- 
tire subjectivity.  If,  as  Plato  declares,  "  the  soul  reasons 
best  when  least  harassed  by  the  bodily  senses,"  so  much 
the  better  will  it  garner  the  wisdom  taught  by  the  fleeting 
panorama  of  its  past  life  when  entirely  free  from  physical 
perturbation. 

Then,  if  everything  in  nature  is  pointing  towards  and 
preparing  for  distinct  periods  of  subjective  experience  in 
the  cycle  of  human  existence,  we  can  hardly  be  wrong 
when  assuming  that  reincarnation  is  fully  and  completely 
proven  by  this  preparation  for  and  gradual  leading  up  to 
it  on  her  part,  for  again  the  truism  meets  us  that  natura 
non  saltet,  and  it  would  be  a  great  deal  more  than  a  leap 
for  her  to  suspend  processes  once  inaugurated.  It  would 
be  like  a  great  river,  whose  waters  have  been  collected 
from  the  four  quarters  of  a  continent,  suddenly  ceasing  to 
flow  and  disappearing  into  nothingness  when  within 
sound  of  its  aim  and  end,  the  sea. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  COMPOSITE  NATURE  OF  THE  SOUL. 

JT^HUS  far,  in  our  study,  we  have  spoken  of  that  which 
J^  reincarnates  in  man  under  the  generic  term  of 
Soul.  It  now  becomes  necessary  to  use  a  more  specific 
expression,  in  order  that  we  may  determine  just  what 
portion  of  man  reincarnates,  and  what  does  not.  This 
can  only  be  accomplished  by  a  study  of  that  composite 
nature  of  man's  soul  which  is  evidenced  by  the  com- 
plex character  of  his  conscious  functioning. 

All  systems  of  philosophy,  with  the  sole  exception  of 
that  which  passes  for  a  philosophy  under  the  name  of 
modern  Materialism,  recognize  the  complex  nature  of 
man,  and  all  classify  this  complexity  as  a  necessary 
step  in  any  philosophic  analysis  of  his  being.  In  the 
Kabala,  Gnosticism  and  Buddhism,  the  division  is  into 
seven  Principles  or  basic  elements  entering  into  his 
composition;  in  Vedantin  Brahmanism  and  the  teach- 
ings of  Lao-Tse,  there  are  five;  in  Christianity,  three — 
the  body,  soul  and  spirit,  of  Paul;  while  Materialism 
alone  recognizes  but  one,  the  "matter"  of  his  body, 
and  of  which  all  his  other  faculties  are,  according  to  it, 
but  properties. 

Without  pausing  to  examine  wherein  other  systems 
agree  or  disagree  with  the  theosophic  classification,  we 
will  take  up  that  as  being  identical  with  the  exoteric 
enumeration  of  several  great  religions,  and  as  agreeing 
esoterically  with  all  of  them.  This  is  the  seven-fold 
division,  and  corresponds  with  other  great  septenates 


COMPOSITE   NATURE   OF   THE    SOUL.  I  I/ 

in  nature.  It  separates  man  into  Body  (Sthula  Sharira); 
Astral  Body  (Linga  Sharira) ;  Vitality  (Prana)  ;  Animal 
Soul  (Kama);  Human  Soul  (Manas);  Spiritual  Soul 
(Buddhi);  and  Spirit  (Atman).  The  words  in  paren- 
theses are  the  Sanscrit  originals,  of  which  the  English 
equivalents  are  attempted  translations. 

[~From  this  classification  it  is  at  once  apparent  that 
"  soul  "  may  be  defined  as  any  vehicle  for  conscious- 
ness, as  was  shown  in  the  opening  sentences  of  this  work; 
and  the  necessity  for  an  accurate  technology  is  seen  to 
be  imperative.  For  in  the  above  enumeration  there  are 
three  Principles  classed  as  "  souls,"  each  being  a  vehicle 
for  a  higher  expression  of  consciousness,  while  the  Body 
and  Astral  Body  fall,  strictly  speaking,  under  the  same 
category,  both  being  also  but  vehicles  for  other  states  of 
consciousness. 

Let  us  begin  this  necessarily  brief  examination  with 
the  lowest  principle,  or  the  Body.  Under  the  evolu- 
tionary and  philosophic  necessity,  as  previously  pointed 
out,  of  higher,  more  developed  centers  of  consciousness, 
using  matter  already  the  seat  of  consciousness  in  lower 
expressions  of  form,  it  is  at  once  seen  that  the  Body 
represents  in  its  molecular  constitution  hosts  of  these 
lower  lives.  Every  cell  is  a  synthesized  group  of  such 
lives;  every  organ,  a  synthesized  group  of  cells;  every 
system,  a  synthesized  group  of  organs;  every  Body, 
a  synthesized  group  of  systems.  Now,  a  synthesis 
demands — and  demonstrates — a  synthesizer.  So  it  is 
evident  that  man,  even  in  his  lowest,  most  material 
aspect,  or  Body,  represents  hosts  of  such  synthesizing 
centers  of  consciousness.  That  each  cell  is  an  entity, 
even  science  freely  admits.  Green,  for  example,  in  his 
"Pathology  and  Morbid  Anatomy,"  states: 


Il8  A    STUDY    OF    THE    SOUL. 

"  Bver  since  Schwann  discovered  the  cellular  nature  of  animals,  and 
established  the  analogy  between  animal  and  vegetable  cells,  there 
has  been  a  gradually  increasing  conviction  among  physiologists, 
which  has  now  become  a  universally  accepted  physiological  and  path- 
ological doctrine,  that  the  cell  is  the  seat  of  nutrition  and  function  ; 
and,  further,  that  each  individual  cell  is  itself  an  independent 
organism,  endowed  with  those  properties  and  capable  of  exhibiting 
those  active  changes  which  are  characteristic  of  life.  Bvery  organ- 
ized part  of  the  body  is  either  cellular,  or  is  derived  from  cells,  and 
under  no  circumstances  do  they  originate  de  novo" 

This  is  directly  confirmatory  of  Weismann's  theory  of  an 
immortal  cell  handed  down  from  parent  to  offspring,  from 
modifications  of  which,  by  the  countless  elemental  lives 
actively  engaged  in  the  construction,  maintenance  and 
repair  of  his  body,  all  that  magnificent  structure  is  formed. 
It  has  an  important  bearing,  as  will  be  shown  when  deal- 
ing with  the  Reincarnating  Ego,  upon  the  karmic  relation 
of  the  Thinker  to  his  body;  this  immortal  cell  being  the 
actual  physical  basis  for  the  transmission  of  physical 
heredity. 

The  Body,  then,  is  simply  a  molecular  and  cellular  as- 
sociation of  lower  "  lives,"  of  various  degrees  of  conscious- 
ness, synthesized  and  used  by  the  Thinker,  the  true  Re- 
incarnating Ego,  as  a  necessary  bundle  of  sense  organs  to 
relate  its  higher  consciousness  to  this  lower  plane. 

The  Linga  Sharira,  or  Astral  Body,  is  the  ethereal 
counterpart  of  the  gross  body;  the  location  of  the 
centers  of  sensation;  and  the  vehicle  of  Prana,  the 
Life  Principle,  upon  one  side,  and  of  Kama  or  desire, 
upon  the  other.  The  philosophic  and  logical  necessity 
for  such  a  body  is  abundantly  demonstrable,  yet  space 
limits  to  the  consideration  of  phenomenal  proof  alone. 
These  consist  in  dreams,  in  "  dopplegangers,"  in 


COMPOSITE   NATURE   OF    THE    SOUL.  119 

"materializations,"  in  "repercussions"  of  injuries  in- 
flicted during  "materializations,"  in  the  "physical  mani- 
festations" of  mediums  in  (low)  clairvoyance,  in  "ghosts," 
"wraiths,"  and  apparitions,  etc.  The  complete  hypo- 
thetical proof  of  the  existence,  by  necessity,  of  such 
a  body  is  to  be  found  in  certain  phenomena  of  hypnotism. 
It  is  well  known  that  hypnotizers  can  prevent  their  sub- 
jects from  seeing  any  person  or  object  which  the  hypno- 
tizer  designates  by  simply  willing  or  "suggesting"  that 
upon  awakening  they  can  not.  This  prohibition  may  be 
made  to  extend  to  any  or  all  of  the  senses,  at  pleasure. 
Thus,  is  one  instance,  the  "subject"  was  made  unable  to 
see  the  .body  of  a  person  present,  but  was  permitted  to 
see  his  hat.  This  resulted  in  an  apparent  movement  of 
a  hat  through  space  without  any  perceptible  cause, 
greatly  to  her  astonishment  and  dismay. 

Now,  it  is  at  once  apparent  that  if  the  centers  of 
sensation  are  located  in  the  physical  cells  of  either 
retina,  optic  nerve,  or  thalami,  nothing  but  an  actual 
physical  interposition  of  matter  upon  their  own  plane 
can  possibly  inhibit  their  action.  Given  that  physical 
cells  convey  the  result  of  a  vibratory  impact  along 
physical  nerve  tracts  to  physical  ganglia,  and  we  have 
a  physical  sequence  that  only  physical  means  can  possibly 
disturb.  This,  too,  without  noting  the  further  factor  in 
the  problem  of  purely  mechanical  motion  having  been 
transmuted  into  terms  of  sensation — an  impossible  phe- 
nomenon with  a  purely  physical  circuit.  Nothing  but 
degenerative  disease,  or  the  surgeon's  knife,  can  interpose 
any  barrier  between  the  vibration  and  its  translation  into 
terms  of  sensation,  if  the  whole  sequence  have  actually 
been  limited  to  the  physical  plane.  Therefore,  when 


120  A   STUDY    OF    THE   SOUL. 

phenomena  force  us  to  admit  the  fact  of  such  inhibition 
we  are  also  forced  to  postulate  this  "inner  man  "  as  the 
only  possible  explanation.  Its  presence,  also,  is,  as  we 
have  seen,  proven  by  hosts  of  other  phenomena,  and  it 
is  thus  not  compelled  to  rest  its  claims  for  recognition 
solely  upon  a  hypothetical  necessity.  But  given  a  Linga 
Sharira,  having  within  it  centers  of  sensation  for  the 
reception  and  transmutation  of  molecular  vibrations, 
which  centers  respond  and  yield  to  the  will,  then  a 
stronger  will  can  interpose  between  the  soul  and  such 
centers  of  sensation,  with  the  results  brought  out  by 
hypnotism,  the  phenomena  of  which  is  thus  satisfac- 
torily explained.  This  will  be  more  fully  seen  in  the 
chapter  devoted  to  the  bearing  of  hynotism  and  Mes- 
merism upon  the  phenomena  of  consciousness. 

The  Linga  Sharira  is  formed  of  "matter"  immediately 
above  or  "within"  that  of  the  physical  earth.  It  dis- 
integrates with  the  body,  of  which  it  is,  as  stated,  an 
ethereal  counterpart,  whose  office  is  to  furnish  a  con- 
necting link  between  man's  inner  Ego  and  the  coarser 
physical  molecules. 

The  third  human  Principle  is  Prana;  vaguely  recognized 
by  science  as  "  vitality,"  because  of  the  constant  occur- 
rence within  the  human  organism  of  phenomena  exceed- 
ing the  possibility  of  being  explained  by  any  "  natural"- 
i.  £.,  materialistic — law.  It  is  the  phenomenal  aspect  of  the 
universal  Life  Principle  in  the  Universe ;  or  of  that  which 
Eastern  philosophers  call  Jiva.  Jiva  is  but  one  of  many 
terms  for  the  Force- Aspect  of  the  Causeless  Cause;  the 
latter  being  objectivized  as  the  "  Light"  the  "  Life,"  or  the 
creative  power  of  the  Logoi.  There  is  no  point  in  space 
where  this  Jiva,  or  "Light,"  is  not  potentially  present; 


COMPOSITE   NATURE    OF   THE    SOUL.  121 

when  it  becomes  a  potency,  it  is  transmuted  into  Prana. 
Thus  Prana  is  not  the  life  principle  in  man  alone,  but 
also  that  of  every  entity  in  the  material  universe,  whether 
that  entity  be  ensouled  in  the  mineral  kingdom  as  a  stone, 
in  the  vegetable  as  a  plant,  or  in  the  animal  or  human 
kingdoms  as  individual  members  of  these  natural  divisions. 
Jiva  and  Prana  are  one;  Jiva  becomes  Prana  when  ap- 
parently refracted  and  differentiated  by  matter  or  Sub- 
stance. 

The  fourth  human  principle  is  Kama,  or  desire.  Like 
all  the  others,  this  is  also  an  universal  principle  in  nature. 
It  finds  its  point  of  grossest  and  most  material  expres- 
sion upon  the  fourth  plane  of  the  Cosmos,  and  upon  the 
seventh  sub-plane,  or  the  human-animal  plane.  In  its 
highest  aspect,  Kama  is  that  pure,  untainted  spiritual 
Compassion-Desire  which  brings  the  objective  universe 
into  activity,  that  it  may  again  permit  subconscious  en- 
tities to  take  up  their  evolution  towards  freedom  from 
limitation.  In  its  lowest  aspect,  it  is  reflected  in  the 
"loves  of  the  atoms"  by  which  molecular  association  be- 
comes possible.  In  animals  and  animal-man,  it  is  a  rag- 
ing, irrationalized,  insatiable  selfishness ;  the  cause  of  that 
apparently  cruel  "  struggle  for  existence,"  which  we  ob- 
serve in  the  kingdoms  below  us;  and  which,  alas!  is  also 
but  too  evident  in  that  of  man. 

All  entities  in  the  Cosmos,  at  some  stage  in  their  be- 
coming, reach  and  pass  through  this  intensely  kamic 
plane — a  plane  only  in  the  sense  that,  being  a  real  "  prop- 
erty" of  matter,  entities  having  reached  it  exhibit  in  the 
matter  with  which  they  clothe  themselves  this  quality  of 
Rajas,  or  passion.  As  we  can  not  believe  in  any  deliber- 
ate cruelty  in  nature,  the  kamic  stage  must  therefore  be  a 


122  A    STUDY    OF    THE    SOUL. 

necessary  and  beneficent  one.  It  may  be  the  means  of 
so  concentrating  and  individualizing  centers  of  conscious- 
ness and  nascent  souls  as  to  permit  of  their  being  lifted 
as  individualities  to  higher  planes.  It  certainly  affords  an 
efficient  school  of  instruction  in  the  Pairs  of  Opposites  of 
Eastern  Philosophers,  and  thus  permits  and  enforces  the 
widening  of  man's  conscious  area.  As  it  will  be  further 
dealt  with  in  connection  with  the  Reincarnating  Ego,  it  is 
passed  by  for  the  present. 

The  four  principles  enumerated,  and  which  are  com- 
monly classed  as  the  Lower  Quaternary,  are  thus  seen  to 
belong  equally  to  man  and  to  the  kingdoms  below  him.  In 
them  alone  there  is  nothing  to  distinguish  man  from  the 
animals,  nor  does  this  Quaternary  reincarnate  in  the  spe- 
cific sense  in  which  we  speak  of  the  reincarnation  of  the 
human  soul.  Upon  the  death  of  a  man,  as  the  microcosm 
of  the  Macrocosm,  he  of  necessity  goes  into  a  pralaya,  or 
subjective  existence,  corresponding  accurately  to  that  of 
the  Cosmos.  For  when  the  Great  Cycle  is  completed, 
when  the  hour  of  universal  dissolution  strikes,  the  "body" 
of  the  Cosmos,  or  matter  upon  this  molecular  plane,  first 
disintegrates.  The  consciousness  ensouled  by  it  becomes 
subjective,  or  " latent";  a  bare  potentiality  of  again  man- 
ifesting, when  similar  conditions  again  present  an  oppor- 
tunity. Next,  plane  after  plane  of  entities  ensouled  with 
higher  conscious  centers  is  reached  by  the  touch  of 
Brahma-Siva,  and  each  in  turn  becomes  also  a  bare  poten- 
tiality during  the  eons  of  Non-Being  which  constitutes  the 
Great  Pralaya.  At  last  those  are  reached  which  have 
evolved  to  the  point  of  eternal  self-consciousness.  The 
latter,  therefore,  pass  consciously  into  these  eternally  sub- 
jective planes.  An  analogy  might  be  thought  of  thus: 


COMPOSITE   NATURE   OF   THE   SOUL.  123 

Suppose  a  cold  wave  were  to  gradually  pass  from  the 
poles  to  the  equator,  freezing  every  plant,  animal,  and  man 
into  a  stony  rigidity,  but  not  destroying  their  potentiality 
of  again  manifesting  all  their  former  activities  should 
the  cold  wave  pass  away  and  permit  the  old  climatic  con- 
ditions to  be  restored.  Let  us  suppose  this  frigid  con- 
dition to  last  for  ages,  after  which  it  does  pass  away 
and  again  permits  of  the  resumption  of  active  life  by 
the  inhabitants  of  each  successive  zone  as  the  wave 
of  cold  recedes  northward.  If  we  further  conceive 
of  this  process  of  successive  suspension  and  regain- 
ing of  consciousness  as  eternally  repeated,  and  that 
entities  overtaken  below  trie  plane  of  subjective  self- 
consciousness  have  no  conception  of  the  interval  passed 
in  the  frozen  condition,  we  may  dimly  imagine  that 
which  takes  place  upon  all  the  '  planes  below  self- 
consciousness  at  the  out-breathing  and  in-breathing 
of  the  "  Great  Breath,"  or  the  great  Cycles  of  Being 
and  Non-Being.  Only  that  in  this  pralaya  it  is  con- 
sciousness which  must  be  thought  of  as  frozen  or 
latent,  if  below  the  plane  of  subjective  self-consciousness; 
and  not  form,  as  in  the  illustration  given,  for  all  form 
disappears  under  the  power  of  the  In-Breathing  of 
Brahm. 

/""""Similarly,  upon  the  death  of  the  body,  the  cell-forms 
disintegrate,  and  the  entities  ensouled  by  them  become 
"  frozen,"  or  latent.  Their  Great  Pralaya  has  struck;  their 
Prana  re-becomes  Jiva;  their  ''matter,"  now  the  abode  of 
lower,  unsynthesized  lives  alone,  enters  the  general  store- 
house of  nature,  or,  rather,  returns  to  the  plane  from  which 
it  had  .been  temporarily  lifted  by  this  association,  and 
may  be  and  is  used  over  and  over  again  for  similar  pur- 


124  A   STUDY    OF   THE   SOUL. 

poses  by  other  entities.  The  Linga  Sharira,  which  is  but 
finer  ethereal  matter,  surrenders  its  Prana,  and  is  sim- 
ilarly resolved  back  into  its  component  lower  "lives." 
The  higher  kamic  "  elementals,"  those  which  synthesize 
the  various  "  organs"  of  the  body,  are  next  reached  by  the 
"  inbreath,"  and  become  latent — changing  into  those 
skandhas  of  Vedantin  philosophy  which  await  the  return 
of  the  soul  to  incarnation,  which  is  their  manvantara,  or 
opportunity  for  renewed  conscious  manifestation. 

Thus  the  whole  of  the  four  lower  principles  take  no 
part  in  reincarnation  as  self-conscious  entities.  There  yet 
remains  that  which  is  termed  the  Higher  Triad  to  deal 
with,  which  completes  the  Septenary  classification. 

Of  these  the  most  important  (to  us)  is  the  Reincarnat- 
ing Ego,  the  Center  of  Self-Consciousness ;  that  which  Mrs. 
Annie  Besant  first  termed  the  Thinker,  which  is  the  real 
basis  of  man's  apparent  and  (relatively)  true  individualized 
existence.  But  as  this  will  be  dealt  with  in  a  separate 
chapter  it  will  be  passed  for  the  present,  and  the  remain- 
ing two  briefly  considered. 

Sophists  have  tried  to  show  that  the  Causeless  Cause 
of  Theosophic  Philosophy  was  an  impossibility,  because 
the  moment  any  cause  is  postulated  one  antecedent  and 
causal  to  it,  as  well  as  one  subsequent,  are  at  once  re- 
quired. The  Universe,  from  this  point  of  view,  is  but  an 
eternal  sequence  of  causes  and  effects  impossible  of  inter- 
ruption or  cessation.  This  is  a  true  view  of  all  finite 
causes  and  effects.  These  are  a  series  in  which  the  cessa- 
tion of  one  cause  as  an  effect  changes  necessarily  the  rela- 
tion of  this  to  a  future  one,  so  that  it  becomes  in  turn  a 
cause.  Yet  if  this  is  true  of  finite  causes  and  effects,  it 
none  the  less  demands  the  postulating,  philosophically,  of 


COMPOSITE    NATURE   OF    THE   SOUL.  125 

a  causal  basis  which  supports  the  whole  finite  series  with- 
out itself  being  in  any  way  modified  or  limited  by  so 
doing.  Thus,  if  the  series  of  finite  causes  and  effects 
which  we  recognize  as  the  manifested  or  phenomenal 
Universe  be  likened  to  an  immense  series  of  arches 
spanning  an  ocean,  the  existence  and  integrity  of  each  of 
which  truly  depends  upon  its  immediate  neighbor  upon 
either  side,  then  the  Causeless  Cause  would  be  the  solid 
rock  upon  which  the  piers  supporting  all  the  arches  rest. 
That  rock  is  equally  undisturbed  and  unmodified  whether 
piers  or  arches  rest  upon  it  or  not.  And  this  non-limit- 
ation and  non-modification  is  the  same,  although  a  portion 
of  this  rock  be  used  in  the  construction  of  both  piers  and 
arches.  In  like  manner,  the  Causeless  Cause  remains 
unmodified,  although  it  is  both  the  base  upon  which  phe- 
nomenal existence  rests  and  that  phenomenal  existence 
itself  (as  one  aspect  of  its  manifestation). 

The  Atman,  the  highest  human  principle,  is  a  Ray  from 
the  Causeless  Cause,  and  thus  defies  definition  and  eludes 
analysis.  It  is  the  base  upon  which  man's  Thinking  prin- 
ciple rests  its  phenomenal  existence.  It  is  the  pier  which 
supports  the  arch  of  a  human  soul.  But  it  also  equally 
supports  and  is  the  base  of  all  things  in  the  Universe  as 
well.  It  is  the  Unknowable  Something,  or  No-thing, 
rather,  which  binds  together  those  properties  which  con- 
stitute alike  Matter,  Force,  or  Consciousness.  Thus  in 
gold  we  have  certain  properties,  as  ductility,  malleability, 
weight,  cohesion,  extension,  etc.  Now,  what  has  caused 
these  various  properties,  this  malleability,  ductility,  cohe- 
sion, etc.,  to  unite  into  atomic  form  as  gold?  Is  it 
chance,  or  is  there  an  unifying,  synthesizing,  causal  base, 
upon  which  all  the  properties  of  any  so-called  matter 


126  A    STUDY    OF   THE   SOUL. 

can  equally  rest?  Theosophy  declares  for  the  latter 
proposition,  and  further  insists  that  the  varied  and 
multiform  qualities  and  faculties  of  man's  divinely  com- 
plex mind  are  also  synthesized  by  and  rest  upon  a 
Ray  from  this  same  Causeless  Cause.  This  Unknow- 
able Ray,  then,  is  Atman,  and  bestows  potentially 
upon  man  by  virtue  of  its  origin  all  the  Creative, 
Preservative,  and  Destructive  (or  regenerative)  powers 
we  see  manifested  in  the  Universe  about  us. 

But  a  Cause  without  an  agent  to  bring  about  its 
effect  is  inconceivable — at  least,  to  all  but  Western 
materialistic  philosophy.  Therefore,  as  we  see  in 
nature  an  obvious  duality  in  spirit  and  matter,  and 
recognize  that  any  absolute  law  must  obtain  on  all 
planes  of  the  Cosmos,  we  must  also  postulate  a  material 
aspect  or  vehicle  for  this  Atmic  Ray.  It  is  as  unde- 
finable  and  metaphysical  as  Atman  itself,  but  it  is  an 
absolutely  necessary  philosophic  hypothesis.  It  also 
arises  as  a  perfectly  legitimate  logical  sequence  in  fol- 
lowing physical  laws  into  metaphysical  domains.  This 
vehicle,  for  Atman,  then,  is  called  Buddhi,  and,  like 
Atman,  is  an  universal,  indestructible  principle  poten- 
tially present  in  every  conceivable  point  of  space,  and, 
like  the  latter,  its  apparent  separation  in  man  or  nature- 
an  illusion. 

Yet  we  would  err  were  we  to  look  upon  this  base  of 
the  material  aspect  of  man's  being  as  being  only  material. 
There  is  no  pure  matter  in  the  Cosmos,  as  there  is  also 
no  pure  spirit.  And  as  each  expression  of  consciousness, 
under  the  law  of  cause  and  effect,  must  seek  a  fitting 
vehicle,  Buddhi,  being  the  vehicle  of  the  Atmic  Ray 
from  Absolute  Consciousness,  is  of  itself  possessed  of 


COMPOSITE    NATURE   OF  THE   SOUL.  127 

faculties  and  powers  infinitely  superior  to  man,  even 
in  his  highest  aspect  of  a  Thinking,  Reincarnat- 
ing entity.  As  the  vehicle  of  Absolute  Wisdom  and 
Power,  it  is  called  the  Knower,  in  superior  contra- 
distinction to  that  Thinker  next  it  which  has  to  arrive 
at  knowledge  and  wisdom  by  thought  or  reason.  As 
the  vehicle  of  Absolute  Consciousness,  it  corresponds, 
in  its  relation  to  this,  to  the  human  brain,  or  man's 
physical  basis  for  registering  conscious  experiences.  In 
the  latter  are  recorded  all  his  conscious  experiences  in 
matter  during  a  physical  life.  In  Buddhi  is  stored,  as 
corresponding  to  an  eternal,  metaphysical  brain  of  the 
Universe,  the  conscious  experiences  of  all  manvantaras. 
To  reach  the  wisdom  residing  in  this  Divine  Vehicle,  to 
widen  one's  conscious  area  to  Infinite  bounds,  is  to 
become  immortal  in  very  truth,  for  it  is  union  with 
that  which  is  One  and  Indestructible.  Such  an  union 
is  undoubtedly  attainable,  but  before  its  attainment 
stretch  such  immeasurable  vistas  of  time,  such  incon- 
ceivable experiences  in  consciousness,  that  at  our  present 
stage  speculation  upon  it  seems  unwarranted.  The  union 
of  the  lower  Personality  with  the  Higher  Ego  is  our 
present  evolutionary  task,  the  relation  of  which  to  each 
other  and  to  nature  will  be  next  considered. 


W" 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE    REINCARNATING    EGO. 

'E  have  now  reached  a  point  where  we  may  perhaps 
profitably  study  the  nature  and  function  of  man's 
Fifth  Principle,  omitted  in  the  general  review  because 
its  importance  required  a  more  extended  and  careful 
consideration.  This  Principle  is  variously  spoken  of  as 
Higher  Manas,  the  Reincarnating  Ego,  the  Thinker,  and 
other  names.  It  is  the  true  individuality,  as  contra- 
distinguished from  the  lower,  fleeting  personalities  of 
its  successive  incarnations.  It  represents  that  aspect 
or  power  of  the  Absolute  which  causes  individualized 
centers  of  consciousness  to  first  form  and  then  to  at- 
tain to  self-consciousness  in  the  Phenomenal  Universe. 
It  is  this  Principle  which  reincarnates,  for  it  alone 
represents  the  true  man.  The  Quaternary  disappears 
as  an  entity  at  death.  Buddhi  and  Atman  are  universal 
non-individualized  Principles;  Manas,  the  Thinker,  alone 
journeys  as  a  self-conscious  entity  from  body  to  body 
by  means  of  Reincarnation.  This  Thinker,  then,  in  its 
various  relations  to  the  body,  and  especially  in  its 
aspect  as  the  Lower  Manas,  or  the  personal  self,  re- 
mains, after  all  possible  elimination  of  other  factors, 
as  of  prime  and  paramount  importance  in  the  problem 
of  human  existence.  Let  us  study  it  carefully  and 
reverentially,  for  in  and  through  it  alone  shall  we  be 
able  to  come  into  an  understanding  of  the  Divine  in 
nature  and  in  man;  for  they  are  One. 

There  has  been  shown,  in  the  chapter  devoted  to  the 


THE    REINCARNATING    EGO.  129 

evolution  of,  the  soul,  the  gradual  process  by  which  an 
atomic  center  of  consciousness,  through  continuous  con- 
scious experiences,  attains  to  the  self-conscious,  or  human 
stage,  while  on  its  way  to  godhood.  We  have  also  seen 
that  the  law  of  cyclic  periodicity  shows  how  and  why 
such  centers  are  graded  into  great  hierarchies,  by  the 
natural  limits  thus  set  to  their  emergence  from  the  bosom 
of  the  Absolute.  The  relation  which  the  Reincarnating 
Ego  bears  to  this  world  and  its  cycle  is  thus  capable  of 
logical  solution. 

It  is  evident  both  phenomenally  and  philosophically 
that  the  material  Universe  is  embodied  Consciousness, 
or  Consciousness  of  infinite  gradations,  clothed  in  equally 
infinite  expressions  of  form.  As  the  Universe  ebbs  and 
flows — to  finite  perception — from  subjective  to  objective 
states  throughout  the  eternities  of  Duration,  it  follows 
that  worlds  appear  and  disappear  endlessly;  the  Great 
Prayala,  even,  being  only  a  subjective  arc  of  larger 
immensity.  In  the  life  history  of  all  worlds,  as  is  proven 
by  the  records  now  visible  in  the  heavens,  there  comes 
a  time  when  they  cool  down  sufficiently  to  become  habit- 
able; when  they  pass  through  this  stage;  when,  by  the 
ebbing  of  their  life  force,  or  the  completion  of  their 
limiting  cycle,  humanities  can  no  longer  exist  upon  them 
in  material  form.  There  is  no  doubt  but  that  their  minor 
pralayas,  or  deaths,  overtake  them  with  the  consciousness 
of  their  entities  in  states  of  infinite  diversity,  such  as  we 
now  perceive  upon  this  earth.  Hence,  there  would  be 
Egos  passing  through  the  human  stage  overtaken  when 
their  world  became  uninhabitable  for  them ;  for  the  life 
cycle  of  a  planet  pursues  its  course  perfectly  uninterrupted 
and  uncontrolled  by  the  evolution  of  any  humanity  upon 


130  A    STUDY    OF    THE   SOUL. 

it,  although  the  two  always  correspond.  Similarly,  were 
pralaya  to  strike  for  this  earth  to-day,  would  all  entities, 
human,  animal,  or  elemental,  be  arrested  in  their  material 
evolution  and  be  compelled  to  remain  in  subjective  states 
until  other  worlds  arrived  at  stages  capable  of  affording 
them  expression  in  suitable  material  forms. 

Our  Higher  Egos  have  witnessed,  it  is  claimed,  the 
death  or  pralaya  of  many  such  worlds,  for  matter  on  our 
own  physical  or  molecular  plane,  by  its  power  of  illusion, 
and  by  the  ease  and  rapidity  with  which  its  unstable 
nature  permits  of  disintegration  and  the  entering  of  the 
out-worn  constituents  into  new  combinations,  is  evidently 
a  very  important,  if  humble,  school  in  a  Universe  where 
every  entity  "is,  was,  or  prepares  to  become  a  man."* 
Planetary  pralayas,  therefore,  have  overtaken  our  Higher 
Egos,  it  may  be  a  great  number  of  times;  for  who  can 
estimate  the  period  necessary  in  material  states  of  con- 
sciousness for  them  to  arrive  at  their  present  stage  ?  At 
any  rate,  when  their  last  world  went  into  pralaya  they 
had  not  yet  passed  beyond  the  desire  for  material  or 
sensuous  existence,  and  so  were,  under  the  law  of  cause 
and  effect,  drawn  to  human-animal  bodies  which  nature, 
through  its  lower  hierarchies  of  "  Builders,"  had  been  pre- 
paring for  their  occupation  during  those  interminable 
periods  which  geology  is  beginning  to  recognize  as 
necessary  factors  in  human  evolution.  This  reincar- 
nation of  already  highly  advanced  Egos  of  former 
worlds  in  human-animal  forms,  prepared  for  them  under 
the  physical  aspect  of  the  triple-sided  process  (physical, 
intellectual,  and  spiritual)  of  evolutionary  activity  upon 
this  world,  is  the  key  of  the  whole  scheme  of  human 

^Secret  Doctrine. 


THE   REINCARNATING    EGO.  131 

evolution  upon  this  planet.  It  also  solves  many  other- 
wise hopelessly  insoluble  problems  in  human  conscious- 
ness, such  as  clairvoyance,  prophetic  dreams,  and  the 
"buried  selves,"  so  strangely  dug  out  of  their  unsuspected 
graves  by  hypnotic  processes.  All  such  phenomena,  as 
we  have  seen,  prove  that  there  is  in  man's  body  a  soul 
too  superior  to  that  body  to  be  the  product  of  the  same 
evolutionary  process  which  has  produced  its  transient 
tenement  of  clay. 

Man's  Higher  Ego,  then,  as  shown  by  its  possessing 
powers  and  faculties  far  transcending  its  material  vehicle, 
must  be  the  product  of  former  world  periods.  Because  of 
its  derivation  from  the  Conscious-Aspect  of  the  Absolute, 
as  a  Ray  from  Mahat  or  the  Cosmic  Mind,  the  Reincarnat- 
ing Ego  is  a  center  of  potential  self-consciousness  upon 
all  the  planes  of  nature  in  the  Cosmos.  This  potentiality 
has,  during  these  former  manvantaras,  become  a  potency 
upon  many  of  these  planes,  some  of  which,  as  shown  by 
the  Divine  Wisdom  of  the  Higher  Ego,  must  be  infinitely 
superior  to  the  sensuous  consciousness  of  this  earth.  It 
now  seeks  cosmic  perfection  by  the  evolution  or  attain- 
ment of  this  same,  or  perfect,  self-consciousness,  upon  all 
planes  of  the  Cosmos  yet  remaining  unexplored.  For 
Self-Consciousness  is  the  aim,  the  end,  and  the  crown 
of  consciousness  upon  any  plane,  whether  material  or 
spiritual. 

Being  a  Ray  from  the  Absolute,  emanating  as  it  must 
from  that  Causeless  Cause  lying  hidden  behind  all  mani- 
festation, the  Higher  Ego  possesses  the  creative  and 
ideative  functions  involved  in  its  own  emanation,  or  crea- 
tion. This  creative  power  in  the  Reincarnating  Ego — 
creative  in  the  sense  of  changing  or  renewing  form  only 


132  A   STUDY    OF   THE   SOUL. 

— is  most  important  to  bear  in  mind.  It  must  not  be 
supposed  that  ordinary  men  consciously  create — a  power 
reached  by  Adeptship  alone;  or  even  that  the  Re- 
incarnating Ego  consciously  creates  or  builds  its  own 
bodies:  that  again  is  only  possible  for  those  in  whom 
the  Higher  and  Lower  Egos  have  become  one.  But  the 
Reincarnating  Ego  does  build  astral  and  thought  forms 
unconsciously,  under  the  potency  of  that  power  or  force 
which  is  carried  with  it  in  its  emanation  from  the  Cause- 
less Cause.  This  creative  power  is  the  source  of  the 
Linga  Sharira,  the  second  human  principle;  within  which 
the  physical  molecules  which  constitute  the  Sthula 
Sharira,  or  physical  form,  are  moulded.  It  is  also  the 
source  of  all  thought  forms,  from  the  "  Mayava  Rupa," 
the  consciously  constructed  "  illusion  body"  of  the  Adept, 
to  those  airy  forms  and  scenes  which  in  dreams  change 
and  shift  even  while  we  gaze  upon  them,  so  unstable  and 
feeble  is  the  action  of  the  will  in  these  unrecognized,  faint 
functioning  of  a  soul  thus  unconsciously  exercising 
creative  faculties. 

In  harmony  with  all  nature,  the  Reincarnation  of  the 
Higher  Ego  occurs  in  regular  cycles  of  alternating  ob- 
jective and  subjective  existence.  Its  objective  arc  is 
earth  life;  its  subjective  is  termed  Devachan.*  With  the 
return  of  the  Higher  Ego  to  incarnation,  when  its  sub- 
jective cycle  of  existence  in  Devachan  is  ended,  the 
Linga  Sharira  for  the  new  physical  body  which  is  to  be 
built  becomes  an  active,  formative  potency.  It  awakens 
into  activity  all  those  elemental  or  "skandhic"  forces,  in 
enforced  pralaya  during  the  devachanic  interlude.  Con- 
ception having  taken  place,  these  and  still  lower  hier- 

*Devachan.     See  chapter  on  Post-mortem  States. 


THE   REINCARNATING   EGO.  133 

archies  of  Builders  begin  to  mould  physical  cells  within 
the  astral  model,  so  furnished.  Here  and  now  occurs  the 
first  struggle  with  matter  and  material  limitations  which 
attends  all  the  subsequent  conscious  experience  of  the 
Ego  in  the  new  body.  Under  the  awakening  presence 
of  the  Higher  Ego,  the  hierarchies  of  Builders,  called  by 
scientists — though  very  unscientifically — "  natural  forces," 
must  set  to  work;  but  this  work  is  very  greatly  modified 
because  of  the  stamp  upon  the  physical  cells  by  the 
parents  of  the  physical  form,  under  the  law  of  physical 
heredity,  the  lowest  phase  of  the  triple  evolution  before 
referred  to.  On  the  other  hand,  this  physical  impress  is 
again  modified  in  a  greater  or  lesser  degree  by  the  urgent 
tendencies  of  the  Higher  Ego  to  express  certain  dom- 
inant qualities  under  the  force  of  "  skandhas  "  of  past 
incarnations.  Unmodified  by  a  Higher  Ego,  man  would 
represent  the  exact  average  of  the  sum  of  his  parents' 
qualities,  both  physical  and  pyschic,  as  is  seen  in  the 
almost  endless  continuation  of  identical  forms  in  the 
vegetable  kingdom  and  in  the  lower  animal — in  mollusks, 
for  example.  Unmodified  by  physical  heredity,  the 
Higher  Ego  would  have  no  real  karmic  hold  upon  earth. 
As  experience  is  an  absolute  necessity  for  development, 
the  struggle  with  this  physical  impress  given  by  parents 
under  the  law  of  physical  heredity  affords  the  opportunity 
required  to  develop  the  Higher  Ego's  functions  and 
potencies  upon  this  plane  of  consciousness.  It  also 
satisfies  the  law  of  cause  and  effect,  or  Karma,  which 
compels  Egos  with  certain  characteristics  to  seek  parents 
having  similar  ones,  for  growth  must  always  proceed  from 
the  present  point  of  attainment.  Did  physical  heredity 
not  modify  the  habitation  and  powers  of  the  Reincar- 


134  A    STUDY    OF    THE   SOUL. 

nating  Ego,  there  would  be  no  reason  why  it  should 
seek  expression  through  one  parent  rather  than  another, 
and  we  would  be  forced  back  upon  the  unjust  Christian 
hypothesis  of  the  human  soul  having  no  voice  in  the 
selection  of  its  body.  Did  not  the  Reincarnating  Ego 
have  the  power  to  very  greatly  modify  its  material 
tenement,  the  faculties  and  psychic  powers  of  the  child 
would  represent  the  average  of  the  sum  of  those  of  its 
parents  at  best;  and  the  innumerable  instances  where 
these  are  very  greatly  transcended,  as  well  as  those 
where  the  account  is  on  the  debit  side,  would  be  wholly 
unaccounted  for. 

It  is  thus  apparent  that  man's  soul  and  body  are  each 
the  exact  complement  of  the  other.  The  relation  of  the 
one  to  the  other  becomes  explicable,  and  is  but  another 
illustration  of  the  absolute  play  of  cause  and  effect,  or 
of  action  and  reaction,  between  the  material  and  spirit- 
ual poles  of  the  One  Reality.  Intellectual,  or  Higher 
Ego,  heredity  brings  over  the  results  of  man's  entire 
conscious  past;  physical  heredity  enables  him  to  begin 
further  evolution  or  widening  of  consciousness  at  the 
exact  point  where  he  left  off,  and  along  just  those  lines 
where  his  spiritual  need  is  greatest.  Thus  a  man  in 
a  body  full  of  any  of  the  lower,  rajasic  qualities  pro- 
claims to  the  world  that  his  Higher  Ego  has  need  to 
further  evolve  their  opposites,  and  such  instances  ought 
to  arouse  all  our  sympathies — call  forth  our  best  brotherly 
efforts,  rather  than  that  contempt  and  aversion  which  we 
are  too  apt  to  experience.  It  is  as  though  we  were  to 
turn  shudderingly  away  from  a  pure,  saintly  prisoner 
because  the  cell  in  which  he  is  confined  is  loathsome. 

Physical  heredity   is  thus  explained:       There  are,  ac- 


THE  REINCARNATING   EGO.  135 

cording  to  Weismann,  certain  cells  in  man's  body  which 
have  never  died  since  his  appearance  in  a  physical  form 
upon  this  earth.  These  cells  are,  necessarily,  according  to 
him,  transmitted  directly  from  parent  to  offspring,  and 
actually  carry  forward  those  physical  qualities  which 
constitute  purely  physical  heredity.  But  it  is  not 
necessary  to  predicate  an  eternal  cell,  although  this  is 
possible  and  probable.  It  is  enough  that  actual,  physical 
matter  is  so  transmitted,  for  no  possible  division  of  matter 
into  smaller  particles  can  destroy  or  even  diminish  its 
physical  properties.  The  great  and  all-important  quality 
of  matter  is  to  register  and  record  conscious  experiences 
obtained  by  material  associations.  Upon  tablets  of  some 
degree  of  materiality  all  conscious  records  must  be  graven, 
even  though  this  be  the  Mulaprakriti  of  Eastern,  or 
Primordial  Substance  of  Western,  Philosophy. 

At  conception,  there  is  an  actual  fusion  of  cells  from 
the  father  with  others  from  the  mother,  thus  forming  one 
cell,  the  type  of  all  life.  This  cell  divides,  and  sub- 
divides, almost  infinitely,  for  out  of  its  subdivisions, 
through  repeated  modifications,  all  the  various  tissues 
of  the  body  are  constructed.  There  is  not  nor  can  not 
be  an  introduction  of  a  single  new  or  foreign  cell  in  the 
entire  organism.  All  increase  or  growth  is  by  division 
of  the  original  cell,  and  molecular  accretions  thereto  by 
means  of  nutriment  supplied  —  a  fact  which  explains  the 
wonderful  selective  power  the  various  tissues  exercise 
upon  the  common  food  supply.  Portions  of  this  original 
cell  are  therefore  present  in  every  other  cell  of  the  body, 
and-  by  virtue  of  their  registering  qualities,  carry  into 
the  new  body  the  impress  of  all  purely  physical  ex- 
periences or  form  limitations  of  both  parents.  The  fusion 


UHI7ERSITY 


136  A    STUDY    OF    THE   SOUL. 

of  two  necessarily  differing  parental  cells  gives  also  the 
opportunity  and  basis  for  all  requisite  variation.  As  the 
matter  of  the  father  or  the  mother  predominates,  so  will 
the  new  body  more  closely  resemble  the  one  or  the  other 
parent.  And  back  of  this,  even,  a  peculiarly  strong 
physical  impression  made  by  an  ancestor  may  dominate 
that  of  both  parents,  and  atavism  result,  or  the  sam'e 
effect  may  be  brought  about  by  "skandhas"  unable  to 
incarnate  previously,  and  so  lying  latent. 

Thus  is  seen  how  powerful  is  the  influence  from  the 
physical  line  of  heredity,  when  each  cell  of  the  entire 
body  is  tainted  with  every  physical  desire,  appetite,  or 
passion  of  the  purely  animal  nature  of  both  parents.  And 
the  Linga  Sharira,  enmeshed  in  these  cells,  and  being  the 
seat  of  the  centers  of  sensation,  bring  its  parent,  the 
Reincarnating  Ego,  into  direct  karmic  relations  with  all 
these  animal  propensities.  It  also  affords  a  vehicle  for 
the  re-awakened  skandhic  elementals  to  pour  their  stream 
of  muddy  desires  into  the  physical  body ;  owing  to  karmic 
attraction  having  drawn  the  Reincarnating  Ego  to  parents 
having  similar  characteristics.  Thus  the  physical  conform- 
ation, the  tendency  to  disease,  to  a  long  or  a  short  life, 
to  repeat  such  abnormalities  as  six  fingers  or  toes,  or  such 
peculiarities  as  red  hair  or  squint  eyes,  together  with 
hosts  of  other  purely  physical  limitations,  are  the  result 
of  physical  heredity,  and  transmitted  by  the  handing 
down  from  parent  to  offspring  of  actual  physical  matter  so 
impressed,  and  with  a  subconscious  tendency  to  repeat  the 
original  impression.  The  emotional  and  passional  nature, 
while  afforded  easy  and  fitting  expression  by  physical 
cells  from  parents  having  like  characters,  appears  to  be 
of  skandhic  heredity,  and  carried  over  in  this  manner  from 


THE   REINCARNATING   EGO.  137 

former  lives.  It  is  a  form  of  physical  heredity,  it  is  true, 
but  not  purely  so,  for  it  abandons  one  body  to  reincarnate 
in  another;  thus  resembling  the  "seed"  reincarnation  in 
nature,  while  the  physical  cell  heredity  is  a  case  of  pure 
propagation  by  fission.  But  no  mental  characteristics  can 
be  carried  over  to  the  new  life  thus.  As  we  have  seen, 
the  conservation  of  mental  force  requires  a  mental 
vehicle,  so  that  all  purely  mental  qualities  are  the 
result  of  mental  or  intellectual  heredity,  and  come  by 
and  through  the  Reincarnating  Ego.  Mental  powers 
may  be  and  are  but  too  often  sadly  inhibited,  or  almost 
destroyed,  by  overwhelmingly  bad  psychic  and  physical 
heredity,  which  retard  or  prevent  their  manifestation; 
but  they  none  the  less  come  through  the  channel  of  the 
Reincarnating  Ego  alone. 

The  creative  power  of  the  Higher  Manas,  then,  acting 
upon  subconscious  planes;  produces  or  creates  a  Linga 
Sharira;  similarly  as  on  the  subconscious  planes  of  the 
Lower  Manas,  our  personal  self,  all  the  vital  activities  as 
well  as  the  repair  of  wounded  or  diseased  tissue,  go  on 
quite  independently  of  our  conscious  supervision. 

On  its  own  planes  its  creative  potencies  are  exercised 
consciously  in  the  production  of  those  higher  astral  forms 
which  the  Adept  uses  when  he  abandons  the  physical,  in 
his  journeyings.  With  this  higher  creative  faculty  man- 
kind at  large  is  not,  at  present  at  least,  concerned.  But 
since  the  Higher  Manas  builds,  or  rather,  causes  to  be 
built,  its  physical  body,  through  creative  power  thus  un- 
consciously exercised,  in  what  manner  is  it  consciously, 
and  so  karmically,  connected  with  the  body? 

This  calls  for  an  examination  of  its  creative  functions 
or^ideative  or  mental  planes,  or  the  reflection  in  matter  of 


138  A   STUDY   OF   THE   SOUL. 

its  true,  individualizing  consciousness.  This  reflection — 
perhaps  refraction  would  be  the  better  term — of  itself  is 
quite  another  process  to  that  concerned  in  the  formation 
of  the  Linga  Sharira,  which  we  have  been  considering, 
and  is  the  most  important  of  all.  The  Linga  Sharira  may 
be  said  to  represent  its  purely  physical  expression,  so  to 
speak;  this  refraction,  the  Lower  Manas,  is  itself,  mirrored 
in  material  thought  processes.  The  former  expresses  its 
purely  physical  karma,*  or  its  physical  creative  force 
taking  the  lines  of  least  resistance;  the  latter  connects  it 
karmically  with  the  thoughts  and  mental  processes  of  past 
lives.  Being,  when  its  devachanic  or  subjective  existence 
between  two  lives  is  closing,  drawn  to  the  parents  pre- 
senting the  greatest  sum  of  karmic  affinities,  the  contact 
of  the  soul  with  the  growing  form  sets  up  in  the  phys- 
ical brain  of  the  latter  a  thinking  principle  similarly  as  a 
magnet  upon  being  brought  in  contact  with  non-magnetic 
iron  imparts  magnetism  to  this,  without  having  caused  the 
smallest  change  in  those  physical  qualities  which  con- 
stitute it  iron.  And,  as  the  evolution  of  the  physical 
form,  which  it  took  ages  for  the  Elemental  Builders,  or 
the  ordinary  evolutionary  forces  in  nature,  to  accomplish, 
is  repeated  swiftly  during  the  first  few  weeks  of  gestation, 
so  is  the  entire  evolution  of  the  Lower  Manas  also  re- 
peated during  the  first  few  years  of  the  child's  life.  For 
these  Builders  only  push  matter  up  to  the  animal  or 
kamicf  plane;  the  brooding  presence  of  the  Higher  Manas 

*Karma — the  sequence  of  causes  and  their  effects.  Karmically — 
brought  about  under  the  law  of  cause  and  effect,  etc.  Used  in  this 
work  to  avoid  cumbersome  English  phraseology  only. 

tKama — Sanscrit  for  desire,  especially  associated  with  animal  or 
non-intellectualized  desire. 


THE  REINCARNATING   EGO.  139 

must  impart  the  stimulus  which  brings  it  where  it  is  of 
sufficient  transparency,  so  to  speak,  to  receive  and  refract 
its  image.  It  will  be  at  once  plain  that  our  Lower  Manas, 
the  ordinary  self,  is  thus  a  portion  of  the  very  essence  of  the 
Higher,  just  as  the  magnetism  in  the  iron  is  a  portion  of 
that  in  the  magnet.  And  just  as  the  magnet  may  be 
withdrawn  from  its  contact  with  the  iron,  leaving  a  portion 
of  its  magnetic  qualities  to  slowly  dissipate,  so  may  the 
Higher  Manas  be  separated  entirely  from  its  lower  reflec- 
tion, thus  constituting  for  the  latter  a  veritable  "loss  of 
the  soul." 

For  this  portion  of  the  Higher  Manas  actually  refracted 
or  incarnated  in  matter  is  ourselves,  the  "  I  am  myself," 
of  our  earthly  life.  Could  it  remain  simply  a  portion  of 
the  Higher,  its  functions  and  fate  might  be  different,  but 
this  is  impossible.  As  the  pure  ray  of  light  is  colored  by 
the  color  of  the  glass  which  transmits  it  until  it  is  indis- 
tinguishable from  that  tint,  so  is  the  Lower  Manas  colored 
and  changed  by  its  contact  with  Kama  (sensuous  desire), 
the  chief  and  ruler  of  the  earthly  Quaternary.  All  the 
fierce  desires,  the  unrest,  the  sensuous  appetites,  the  "  lusts 
of  the  flesh,"  of  the  latter  at  once  seize  upon  it,  and  impart 
to  it  that  curious  mixture  of  the  animal  with  the  Divine 
which  we  name  the  lower  self,  or  Personality.  This  could 
not  occur  had  not  the  kamic  Principle  in  the  lower  Quat- 
ernary already  been  evolved  to  a  point  where  it  is  not 
only  able  to  receive  the  magnetic  impress  of  Manas,  but 
to  color  this  with  its  own  qualities  of  passion  and  desire. 

It  is  the  opinion  of  the  writer  that  it  must  not  be  in- 
ferred from  the  above  that  only  a  portion,  as  it  were,  of 
the  Higher  Manas  incarnates  in  the  lower  Quaternary, 
leaving  the  rest  to  enjoy  a  kind  of  superior  consciousness 


140  A   STUDY    OF   THE   SOUL. 

upon  other  planes.  While  the  teaching  is  reserved  upon 
this  point,  still  there  is  enough  given  out,  in  the  Secret 
Doctrine  and  elsewhere,  to  make  it  reasonably  certain  that 
each  individuality  has  but  one  center  of  consciousnesss, 
and  that  this  is  not  in  full  activity  in  two  places,  nor  in 
two  or  more  states,  at  the  same  time.  While  it  is  active 
upon  one  plane  it  may  have  a  subconsciousness  on  others, 
just  as  we  may  be  reading  and  yet  be  conscious  of  noise 
about  us.  But  this  is  only  a  subconsciousness,  not  a 
splitting  of  it.  Therefore,  when  once  the  Higher  Manas 
has  perfected  its  vehicle  sufficiently  to  permit  this,  it 
would  seem  that  it  only  functions  through  that  vehicle 
when  this  is  active,  for  its  very  activity  compels  its  use  as 
a  vehicle.  In  other  words,  our  "  I  am  myself,"  or  individ- 
ualizing center  of  consciousness  which  comes  from  the 
Higher  Manas  and  is  its  distinguishing  characteristic,  is 
functioning  actively  only  through  the  body  when  this  is  in 
the  waking  state,  although  its  subconsciousness  may  ex- 
tend over  many  higher  planes.  When  the  body  ceases 
its  activity,  as  in  sleep  or  death,  then  it  can  of  course  re- 
tire to  its  own  proper  spheres,  to  be  dragged  down  from 
these  by  its  kamic  connection  with  the  body  when  this 
awakens.  It  follows,  then,  that  when  awake  and  occupied 
by  material  or  sensuous  thoughts  only,  the  Higher  Manas 
is  simply  paralyzed — its  consciousness  upon  this  plane  a 
potentiality  only,  somewhat,  perhaps,  like  that  of  the 
lower  consciousness  when  inhibited  by  hypnotism.  This 
is  its  daily  crucifixion,  and  the  true  meaning  of  all  the  re- 
ligious myths  of  crucified  Saviours. 

Yet,  though  the  Higher  Manas  be  paralyzed  as  to  con- 
scious functioning,  it  cannot  be  said  to  be  wholly  or  even 
partially  incarnated  in  the  body,  nor  is  it  even  ever 


THE    REINCARNATING   EGO.  14! 

fully  conscious  upon  this  plane  except  when  its  Higher 
and  Lower  aspects  have  been  enabled  to  unite,  through  the 
latter  having  conquered  in  its  contest  with  Kama.  The 
oneness  and  yet  the  separateness  of  the  Higher  and 
Lower  Manas  is  one  of  the  hardest  of  mystic  teachings  to 
understand.  It  is  another  illustration  of  the  "  Same  and 
the  Other"  of  which  Plato  taught  that  the  Universe  was 
constructed.  Perhaps  the  phenomena  of  an  ordinary 
Faradic  electrical  battery  may  help  us,  by  analogy,  to  a 
better  conception.  In  this,  the  current,  generated  by  the 
zinc  and  carbon,  or  other  elements,  in  the  presence  of  an 
acid  or  saline  solution,  is  passed  through  a  coil  of  insulated 
wire.  Around  this,  in  what  is  technically  termed  the  helix, 
is  coiled  another  wire,  also  completely  insulated,  and  en- 
tirely disconnected  from  the  first,  or  "primary,"  coil.  There 
ought,  therefore,  to  be  no  current  in  this  latter,  or  "  second- 
ary," coil,  yet  the  instant  the  current  from  the  chem- 
ical cell  is  passed  through  the  primary  coil  there  is  set  up 
in  the  secondary  at  each  opening  and  closing  of  the  pri- 
mary circuit  a  modified  current,  known  as  "  induced" 
electricity.  Because  there  has  been  no  actual  contact  be- 
tween the  two  coils,  this  secondary  current  is  thus  said  to 
have  been  produced  by  "  induction" — one  of  those  con- 
venient terms  by  means  of  which  science  seems  to  explain 
so  much,  while  really  explaining  nothing.  Without  at- 
tempting to  account  for  the  real  origin  of  this  induced  cur- 
rent, except  to  point  out  that  the  electro-dynamic  waves  in 
the  ether,  discovered  by  Prof.  Hertz  of  Bonn,  will  give  all 
necessary  clews,  the  analogy  to  the  origin  of  the  Lower 
Manas  and  its  relation  to  the  Higher  is  very  close.  The 
presence  of  the  Higher  Manas,  overshadowing  the  body, 
originates  a  distinct  Thinking  Principle  in  the  brain  of  the 


142  A   STUDY   OF   THE   SOUL. 

latter,  in  a  manner  strikingly  similar  to  the  induced  cur- 
rent of  electricity — that  is,  by  imparting  to  the  latter  its 
own  essential  qualities.  Thus  it  can  be  at  once  seen  that, 
while  the  Lower  Manas  is  caused  by  and  is  of  the  very 
essence  of  the  Higher,  it  is  yet  distinct  without  being  sep- 
arate. Withdraw  the  primary  current,  and  the  induced 
will  disappear;  withdraw  the  Higher  Manas,  and  the 
Lower  perishes,  the  chief  distinction  being  in  the  slower 
process  in  the  latter  case. 

Perhaps  a  closer  analogy  to  the  behavior  of  the  Higher 
and  Lower  Thinking  Principles  after  death  is  afforded  in 
the  phenomena  of  transferred  magnetism  just  referred  to. 
For,  in  the  illustration  given,  when  artificial  magnetism 
has  been  imparted  to  non-magnetic  iron,  upon  the  with- 
drawal of  the  true  magnet  is  seen  almost  identically  that 
phenomenon  which  takes  place  upon  the  separation  of  the 
Higher  and  Lower  Manas.  A  portion  of  magnetism  re- 
mains in  the  iron,  to  be  slowly  or  quickly  dissipated,  as 
the  case  may  be;  it  having  apparently  become  entangled, 
so  to  speak,  in  the  molecules  of  the  latter,  or  having,  more 
correctly,  caused  a  polarized  arrangement  among  those 
molecules  whose  vibratory  ratio  exhibits  the  qualities  of 
magnetism.  So,  at  death,  only  that  portion  of  the  Lower 
Manas  is  withdrawn  which  is  untainted  by  kama.  That 
portion  colored  by  kama  is  left;  a  residue,  having,  by 
virtue  of  its  original  Manasic  origin,  enough  still  of  the 
unconscious  creative  power,  before  referred  to,  to  clothe 
itself  with  an  astral  form;  thus  constituting  the  "Kama 
Rupa,"  which,  senseless  and  fallen  as  it  is,  is  still  the 
"  guide"  of  many  a  poor,  obsessed  "  medium."  For  while 
having  no  center  of  consciousness  capable  of  feeling  and 
functioning  as  such,  still  it  is  capable  again,  by  virtue  of 


THE  REINCARNATING   EGO.  143 

its  Manasic  origin,  of  having  a  false  feeling  of  personality 
reflected  into  it  by  the  Lower  Manas  of  a  medium.  This 
reflection  may  so  synthesize  its  fading  consciousness  as  to 
enable  it  to  connect  itself  with  its  past  life,  and  to  relate 
the  leading  events  of  this  quite  accurately.  Its  feeling  of 
"I  am  myself"  is  thus  an  illusion  of  an  illusion,  if  we  may 
be  allowed  the  expression,  for  the  feeling  of  "I  am  my- 
self," which  we  experience  in  our  waking  state,  real  as  it 
seems,  is  entirely  illusive,  being  reflected  there  in  a  similar 
manner  by  the  overshadowing  of  the  Higher  Manas.  It 
only  exists  because  of  its  connection  with  the  latter,  and  is 
added  to  the  sum  total  of  the  experiences  of  its  parent  at 
death,  as  the  memory  of  each  day  may  be  said  to  be 
added  to  the  sum  of  the  consciousness  of  our  personal 
selves.  For,  having  drawn  what  of  wisdom  it  may  from 
each  association  with  a  body,  the  Higher  Manas  with- 
draws at  death,  taking  all  of  Lower  Manas  which  has 
freed  itself  from  Kama,  leaving  the  remains  of  Lower 
Manas  and  Kama  to  disintegrate  in  Kama  Loca.*  And 
as  there  are  many  days  that  leave  little  or  no  impress 
upon  the  consciousness  of  our  personal  selves,  so  there 
may  be  many  lives  having  but  small  record  on  the  tablets 
of  the  Higher  Manas,  while  some  may  be  forgotten 
altogether. 

These  forgotten  lives  are  the  most  dreadful  fate  which 
may  befall  a  personality,  for  they  are  truly  "lost  souls." 
The  whole  of  the  reflected  portion  of  the  Higher  Manas 
has  been  sunk  so  low  in  Kamic  desires  and  passions  that 
there  is  no  union  possible  after  death ;  and  the  Personality, 
strong  by  virtue  of  this  robbing  of  the  qualities  of  its 
parent,  clothes  itself  in  a  powerful  Kama  Rupa  and  becomes 

*See  Chapter  on  Post-mortem  States. 


144  A    STUDY   OF   THE   SOUL. 

an  active  agent  for  evil,  while  at  the  same  time  descending 
its  own  arc  to  utter  annihilation  amidst  indescribable  suf- 
fering, of  which  the  realization  of  its  impending  fate  is  not 
the  least. 

We  may  now,  perhaps,  dimly  perceive  the  relation  be- 
tween Higher  Manas,  the  Thinker,  which,  with  Atma  and 
Buddhi  as  a  Monadic  base  constitute  the  Reincarnating 
Ego,  and  Lower  Manas,  its  reflection  in  matter  which 
constitutes  the  personal  self.  The  one  is  the  result  of  the 
evolution  through  unthinkable  aeons  of  time,  of  an  individ- 
ualized, spiritual  self-conscious  soul;  a  self-conscious  Ray 
from  the  Great  Cosmic  Thinking  Principle;  the  potency 
of  Thought  in  the  Atmic  Ray  individualized.  It  persists 
throughout  all  minor  manvantaras  and  pralayas;  through 
all  obscurations  or  destructions  of  worlds  or  systems.  Yet 
of  itself  it  is  not  immortal.  It  must  become  one  in  essence 
with  Buddhi,  the  Eternal  Knower  and  Recorder,  to  win 
eternal  persistence  as  an  individual  entity.  Similarly,  the 
Lower  Manas  can  only  survive  one  life  by  becoming  one 
in  essence  with  its  source ;  by  freeing  itself  from  the  at- 
tractions of  Kama  and  returning  to  its  source  with  the 
tribute  of  its  conscious  experiences  in  matter  to  add  to  the 
already  stored  wisdom  of  the  latter.  The  Lower  Manas 
is  thus  but  the  illusory  reflection  of  the  Higher,  when  this 
has  been  karmically  drawn  to  a  human-animal  body  by 
its  desire  and  necessity  for  complete  knowledge  of  the 
material  and  sensuous  states  of  consciousness  upon  this 
plane  of  existence.  This  reflection,  or  refraction,  thus 
produced,  wins  its  immortality  according  as  it  approxi- 
mates towards  its  Divine  parent  or  yields  to  the  sensuous 
delights  of  Kama.  And  not  only  this,  but  of  even  more 
importance,  since  personal  immortality  is  more  the  con- 


THE  REINCARNATING  EGO.  145 

cern  of  many  incarnations,  it  determines  in  each  life  by 
its  thoughts  and  acts  the  social  environment,  the  race,  the 
nation,  the  family,  the  intellectual  trend  and  capacity,  and 
the  ease  or  difficulty,  even,  with  which  the  Higher  Manas 
can  control -the  following  life  or  personality;  so  intimate 
is  the  karmic  relation  between  the  two.  For  while  the 
Higher  Manas,  as  compared  to  its  reflection,  is  god-like  in 
its  wisdom  and  powers,  it  by  no  means  follows  that  it  has 
perfected  wisdom  on  this  plane.  If  it  had,  the  necessity 
for  repeated  incarnations  might  be  questioned.  And  the 
tendencies  of  our  finite  minds  is,  all  the  time,  to  take  the 
finite  view  of  everything — to  want  to  complete  and  round 
out  the  whole  scheme  and  plan  of  the  Cosmos  in  a  few 
years.  This  is  the  pitiful  mistake  which  Christian  the- 
ology falls  into  in  predicating  the  completion  of  man's 
earthly  destiny  in  one  short  life.  Our  Higher  Egos  may 
have  spent  manvantaras  in  other  humanities  developing 
on  quite  distinct  lines  from  those  which  we  vaingloriously 
imagine  include  all  possible  mental  and  spiritual  charac- 
teristics; they  may  spend  manvantaras  to  come,  evolving 
consciousness  along  equally  unsuspected  lines. 

Yet,  god-like  and  wise  as  is  the  Higher  Manas,  it  has, 
as  we  have  thus  shown,  to  descend  life  after  life  to  over- 
shadow, impart  its  own  essence  to,  and  acquire  wisdom 
through  and  from  the  human  bodies  with  which  it  is  kar- 
mically  associated.  During  the  waking  states  of  these 
bodies  it  can  only  function  through  them  by  means  of  its 
reflection,  the  Lower  Manas,  which  is  thus,  for  this  period, 
its  only  conscious  avenue  for  reaching  this  plane.  Yet  so 
dimmed  and  discolored  is  the  Lower  Manas  by  the  de- 
sires and  passions  of  kama,  that  the  consciousness  trans- 
mitted through  it  by  the  Higher  Ego  may  well  be  com- 
pared to  the  light  from  a  sunbeam  struggling  to  penetrate 


146  A   STUDY   OF   THE   SOUL. 

an  opaque,  densely- stained  prison  window.  To  the  pris- 
oner within,  who  has  never  known  any  other  light,  the 
purity  and  brilliancy  of  the  source  of  the  dim,  scarcely 
discernible  ray,  penetrating  the  gloom  of  the  cell,  might 
well  remain  a  matter  of  doubt,  or  even  of  absolute  disbe- 
lief. Yet  in  a  precisely  similar  manner  does  our  Higher 
Ego  overshadow  our  gross  material  body,  struggling  to 
penetrate  and  enlighten  its  inner  darkness;  whispering  to 
our  Lower  Soul  in  the  divine  voice  we  recognize  as  con- 
science; prompting  us  to  altruistic  work  for  humanity; 
filling  our  hearts  with  its  divine  compassion;  the  true 
source  of  every  aspiration  to  become  purer,  wiser,  and 
more  unselfish  than  we  feel  ourselves  to  be. 

And  the  task  of  every  human  soul  is  to  help  in  this 
great  evolution  of  spiritual  consciousness;  to  turn  the 
strength  of  a  purified  will  consciously  to  the  aid  of  nature 
in  the  warfare  between  good  and  evil;  between  light  and 
darkness;  between  Life  and  Death.  This  struggling, 
sinning,  suffering  Personality  can  only  return  to  and  be- 
come one  with  its  divine  progenitor  by  freeing  itself 
from  all  coloring  of  kama — by  the  utter  killing  out  of  de- 
sire. How  important,  then,  a  correct  conception  and  re- 
alization of  the  nature,  interrelations,  and  mutual  depend- 
ence of  our  Higher  and  Lower  Egos  become!  By 
this  knowledge,  and  only  by  it,  is  it  possible  to  formulate  a 
theory  of  ethics,  a  rule  for  human  action,  for  right  living 
and  thinking,  which  shall  explain  why  a  man  ought  to 
strive  to  be  pure,  passionless,  altruistic;  to  live  in  the 
spiritual  portion  of  his  nature ;  to  yield  a  willing,  loving 
obedience  to  the  dictates  of  his  Higher  Self;  to  treasure 
each  glimmering  Ray  from  its  Divine  Light,  even  though 
it  take  the  form  of  stern  rebuke,  as  of  a  million  times 
more  value  than  all  the  gold  of  Ophir  ! 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE    PERSONALITY. 

JT  LTHOUGH  considered  at  some  length  in  the  preceding 
jPY  chapter,  the  lower  self,  or  the  man  of  earthly  sor- 
rows, woes,  ambitions,  appetites  and  desires,  which  all  of 
us  are  while  encased  in  these  material  vestments,  may 
still,  perhaps,  be  examined  profitably  as  a  separate  study. 
The  Personality  is,  as  we  have  seen,  the  lower  Quater- 
nary, or  the  Man-animal,  intellectualized  by  the  incarna- 
tion of  the  Higher  Ego,  from  one  point  of  view,  and  the 
Higher  Ego  itself,  benumbed,  paralyzed,  and  its  con- 
sciousness suppressed  or  distorted  and  discolored  by  the 
imperfect  sense  organs  of  its  body,  from  another.  To 
disentangle  and  define  just  what  the  relation  of  the  Per- 
sonality to  the  Higher,  Reincarnating  Ego  is,  constitutes 
one  of  the  most  difficult  of  tasks,  and  one,  perhaps,  im- 
possible until  man's  reasoning  faculties  are  quickened  and 
corrected  by  intuition.  The  theory  which  follows  is  sub- 
mitted for  consideration,  only.  It  has  no  authority  except 
that  it  seems  a  reasonable  hypothesis,  in  view  of  the 
many  phenomena  it  explains. 

We  have  seen  that  reincarnation  is  an  universal  law; 
that  it  obtains  on  every  plane  and  in  every  kingdom  of 
nature.  It  has  also  been  shown  that  it  is  always  specific, 
and  occurs  under  the  law  that  not  only  do  causes  produce 
their  inevitable  effects,  but  that  like  causes  produce  like 
effects.  In  other  words,  the  cause  must  not  only  be 
equal  to  the  effect,  but  must  correspond  to  this  effect  in 
essence  or  nature.  Material  causes  can  not  originate 


148  A    STUDY    OF   THE   SOUL. 

conscious  effects,  and  vice  versa.  For  this  reason,  all  re- 
incarnation must  be  specific;  each  class  conserving  its 
own  differentiation  of  consciousness.  An  animal  must 
reincarnate  in  the  animal  kingdom,  and  in  some  species 
like  to  itself  in  character.  Thus  the  conscious  center  of 
a  tiger,  for  example,  must  reincarnate  in  an  animal  having 
similar  characteristics. 

The  condition  of  these  animal  centers  of  conscious- 
ness between  incarnations  bears  also  upon  the  problem. 
It  has  been  stated  that  they  become  latent;  but  this  is  a 
vague  term.  It  must  not  be  understood  that  they  lose 
their  identity  as  conscious  centers.  The  term  "latency"  is 
used  to  distinguish  their  state  from  the  devachanic  one  of 
the  human  soul.  In  the  latter,  consciousness  does  not 
cease  to  function,  but  only  transfers  the  scene  of  its  ac- 
tivities to  inner  or  subjective  planes.  In  animal  souls, 
the  consciousness  becomes  a  potentiality  only;  it  ceases  to 
exist  as  an  active  potency  even  on  subjective  planes. 
That  consciousness  is  capable  of  this  cessation  of  activity, 
or  change  of  the  mode  of  its  manifestation,  is  abundantly 
shown  by  analogous  phenomena  on  the  physical  plane. 
Thus,  oxygen  and  hydrogen,  when  combined  as  water, 
cease  to  exist  as  gases,  without  at  all  losing  the  poten- 
tiality of  again  returning  to  gaseous  states  when  their  as- 
sociation as  water  is  terminated.  This  mysterious  ability 
to  retain  a  primal  potentiality  throughout  infinite 
sequences  of  later  correlations  and  associations  is  another 
key  to  the  mystery  of  evolution,  and  the  manner  in  which 
everything  in  the  Universe  may  philosophically  and  ac- 
tually have  its  source  in  Absolute  Unity.  For  if  hy- 
drogen and  oxygen  can  combine  to  form  water,  so,  also, 
can  water  be  decomposed  into  hydrogen  and  oxygen 


THE    PERSONALITY.  149 

again.  It  is,  therefore,  evident  that  not  only  can  every- 
thing in  the  Universe  arise  out  of  Unity,  but  that  the  re- 
verse is  also  true — that  all  things  can  be  resolved  back  into 
Unity  with  equal  certainty. 

This  latent  condition  of  animal  centers,  then,  is  a  re- 
tiring of  such  centers  into  states  where,  though  their 
identity  disappears  as  a  potency,  it  is  preserved  as  a  po- 
tentiality. It  is  the  state  to  which  all  mineral,  all  veg- 
etable, and  most  animal  conscious  centers  retire.  It  is  as 
near  an  approach  to  the  primal  monadic  consciousness  as 
the  evolution  of  these  centers  will  permit.  But,  as  all 
planes  of  consciousness  pass  gradually  into  those  above 
and  below,  so,  also,  in  the  higher  animals  are  there  evi- 
dences of  the  beginnings  of  subjective  states.  Dogs, 
canaries,  etc.,  undoubtedly  dream,  and  this  ability  must 
include  the  power  to  maintain  a  subjective  existence  for 
brief  periods  after  death.  In  other  words,  many,  if  not 
most,  animals  have  a  stage  in  their  life  cycle  corre- 
sponding, in  a  lower  degree,  to  that  of  Kama  Loca  in  man. 

It  will  now  have  become  apparent  to  what  all  this  leads. 
Since  animals  have  a  subconscious  center,  or  "  elemental," 
which  persists  as  an  entity  not  only  through  latent  states, 
but  also  through  real  subjective  ones  as  well,  it  is  plain 
that  the  human  animal  also  has  such  an  "  elemental,"  only 
of  higher  degree.  This  "  human  elemental"  is,  evidently, 
the  source  to  which  we  have  to  look  for  the  next 
humanity,  in  a  becoming  which  is  necessarily  infinite  in 
duration.  It  is  this  nascent  human  center  which  flames 
up  under  the  intellectualization  of  its  animal  desires  into 
the  larger  portion  of  that  which  we  recognize  as  the  "  per- 
sonality." When  the  rationalizing  presence  of  the  lower 
Manas  is  withdrawn  by  death,  it  is  this  entity  which  runs 


150  A   STUDY   OF   THE   SOUL. 

riot  during  the  brief  period  of  its  ability  to  maintain  a 
subjective  existence  in  Kama  Loca,  both  before  and  after 
the  Higher  Ego  passes  into  the  tranquillity  of  Devachan. 
It  is  its  still  raging  desires  which  at  first  disturb  and 
prevent  the  devachanic  rest  of  the  soul.  It,  also,  is  able 
to  flame  up  again  under  the  influence  of  the  Lower  Manas 
of  a  "  medium."  when,  of  course,  it  may  often  give  cor- 
rectly facts  concerning  its  past  life,  and  especially  those 
so  powerfully  impressed  upon  it  by  the  manner  of 
the  death  of  its  body. 

Yet  there  is  in  it  no  "  I  am  I,"  except  it  be  reflected 
there.  It  has  not  evolved  to  this  point  by  many  cycles. 
That  which  each  one  feels  as  his  "  I  am  myself,"  if  his 
consciousness  be  upon  the  material  plane  and  concerned 
with  sensuous  desires,  is  only  a  reflection  from  the  Higher 
Ego,  faintly  shining  through  the  intellect  of  the  human- 
animal.  It  is  thus  an  illusion,  and  must  remain  so  unless 
one  can  so  hush  the  clamors  of  the  senses  as  to  permit 
his  consciousness  to  rise  to  its  own  divine  plane.  With- 
draw Manas,  and  the  "  brain-mind"  collapses,  all  sense  of 
"  I  am  myself"  disappears,  and  the  human  "  elemental," 
after  gathering  itself  together  as  the  "  spook"  or  "Kama- 
Rupa,"  for  a  brief  period  of  uncanny  subjective  existence, 
becomes  "latent";  retiring  from  even  subjective  thought 
planes  until  a  new  reincarnation  enables  it  to  become  a 
potency  by  clothing  itself  once  more  in  a  human-animal 
form. 

Within  this  human-animal  reside  all  sensuous  passions, 
desires,  and  appetites;  all  those  "qualities"  of  rage,  greed, 
cunning,  and  hosts  of  others,  which  the  Hindoo  philoso- 
phers class  as  "  rajas"  and  "tamas"  Western  theology 
would  fain  have  us  believe  these  lower  "devilish"  qualities 


THE   PERSONALITY.  !$! 

to  be  inherent  in  man's  true  or  spiritual  nature.  They 
are  a  part  of  its  conception  of  "  original  sin,"  and,  truly,  a 
"  vicarious  atonement"  by  an  omnipotent  god  is  necessary 
if  these  are  really  constituents  of  our  spiritual  being.  But 
the  Eastern  metaphysicians  fall  into  no  such  error. 
These  qualities  are  foreign  to  and  impossible  of  existence 
upon  the  spiritual  planes  of  the  Higher  Ego;  so  much  so 
that  they  can  not  even  be  impressed  upon  its  divine 
memory.  They  can  only  be  experienced  by  proxy,  as  it 
were,  or  by  the  Higher  Ego  incarnating  in  an  animal  form 
where  these  have  their  normal  plane  of  activity. 

From  its  own  plane,  the  Higher  Ego  brings  its  own 
native  powers.  Intuition  or  direct  perception  of  truth, 
justice  and  virtue;  complete  unselfishness;  prophetic 
power;  and  so  on,  may  be  taken  as  types.  It  is  also  the 
source  and  plane  of  true  self-consciousness.  By  its  simple 
presence  it  intellectualizes  the  lower  rajasic  appetites  and 
passions,  thus  rendering  them  a  thousand-fold  more  diffi- 
cult to  subdue.  The  process  is,  as  we  have  seen,  similar 
to  the  contact  of  the  magnet  imparting  magnetism  to 
non-magnetic  iron.  But  to  intellectualize  only  is  not  its 
mission.  It  must  spiritualize  these  lower  qualities,  and 
transmute  the  experience  so  acquired  in  the  contest  into  a 
knowledge  of  their  "opposites,"  which  can  be  recorded 
and  preserved  on  its  own  divine  plane. 

All  the  "qualities,"  all  the  passions,  desires,  appetites, 
and  intellectual  powers,  even,  of  purely  animal  man  are 
to  be  found  in  varying  degrees  in  the  lower  animals.  As 
an  animal,  man  in  no  way  differs  from  other  animals  ex- 
cept in  degree,  and  this  degree,  in  many  of  the  lower  in- 
stincts, is  relatively  and  actually  lesser  in  him.  If  one 
were  to  attempt  a  diagrammatic  illustration  of  the  effect 


152  A   STUDY    OF    THE    SOUL. 

upon  animal  man  of  the  incarnation  of  his  Higher  Ego,  it 
might  be  shown  first  in  what  the  "  quality"  consisted 
upon  the  animal  plane,  what  it  becomes  when  merely  in- 
tellectualized,  and  what  when  spiritualized  or  transmuted. 
Thus,  in  its  highest  animal  type  the 


INTELLECTUALIZED. 

SPIRITUALIZED. 

Cunning  of  the  Fox,           Becomes  Cheating; 

Inventive  Skill, 

Vanity          "       Peacock, 
Ambition     "      Eagle, 

Love  of  Dress; 
Desire  of  Fame; 

True  Self-Respect. 
Desire    for    the    Ad- 

vancement   of    the 

race. 

Greed,           "      Swine,             " 

Love  of  Riches; 

Altruistic  Desire. 

Rivalry,        "      Horse,              " 
Cruelty,        "       Tiger, 

Wars,  Prize  F'ts; 
Slave-Driving. 

To  help  others  succeed. 

Wage-  Robbing; 

Indifference     to    Per- 

sonal Suffering. 

Mechanic  Skill  of  the  Bee, 

Palace  Building, 

Philosophy    Building, 
Higher     Mathemat- 

ics, etc. 

The  Personality,  then,  in  its  lower  aspect,  is  this  human- 
animal  rationalized  by  lower  Manas.  Yet  the  presence 
and  action  of  the  latter  must  not  be  overlooked  in  our 
too  close  study  of  the  lower  aspect,  or  we  shall  have,  at 
best,  but  an  one-sided  conception  of  our  lower  self. 
Through  the  various  Principles  which  connect  the 
Thinker,  the  Higher  Ego,  with  the  body,  and  especi- 
ally by  means  of  lower  Manas,  the  Higher  Ego  is  able 
to  project  rays  of  its  own  divine  ideation  upon  the 
brain  cells;  to  infuse  its  consciousness  into  the  "  brain- 
mind,"  and  so  purify  by  its  own  golden  light  the  muddy 
flames  of  brain  intellectuality.  The  voice  of  conscience 
is  a  message  direct  from  this  divine  inner  sufferer  and 
prisoner,  who  knows  by  virtue  of  its  own  native  powers 
the  ethical  bearings  of  any  doubtful  question  or  transac- 
tion. There  is  no  need  for  time  to  consider  or  reason; 
the  judgment  is  instantaneous  and  unmistakable;  the  soul 
is  before  the  tribunal  of  its  own  divinity  ;  for  the  brief  mo- 
ment the  warning  voice  is  heard. 

If,  then,  there  be  no  "  I  am  myself"   in  the  Personality 


THE   PERSONALITY.  153 

except  as  reflected  there  by  the  presence  of  the  Higher 
Ego,  thus  "  clothed  in  a  coat  of  skin,"  thus  "  crucified  in 
the  bonds  of  flesh,"  it  is  at  once  evident  why  there  can  be 
for  it  no  immortality.  The  lower  aspect  which  has 
flamed  up  under  the  vivifying  presence  of  the  Higher 
Ego,  as  the  dimly  burning  flame  of  a  night  lamp  might 
under  the  impetus  of  a  jet  of  pure  oxygen,  fades  into  bare 
latency  after  death.  It  can  not  endure  even  as  a 
memory ;  for  its  passionate  cycle  of  existence  is  not  nor 
can  it  be  recorded  in  the  memory  of  the  Divine  Inner 
Ego.  The  Higher  Ego  retires  to  subjective  planes,  and 
in  Devachan  assimilates  the  wisdom  acquired  in  its  last  life 
on  earth.  All  is  gone — the  lower  aspect  of  the  Person- 
ality to  the  oblivion  of  latency,  the  higher  to  its  source. 

How,  then,  is  any  immortality  possible  for  the  Person- 
ality ?  Only  in  the  memory  of  the  Higher  Ego  of  the 
period  during  which  it  spent  a  life  cycle  in  such  or  such  a 
body  is  any  record  preserved.  The  association  is  remem- 
bered as  the  memory  of  such  or  such  a  dwelling  occupied 
by  man  during  one  life  might  be.  Illumined  by  some 
noble  act,  some  self-sacrificing  deed,  how  the  memory  of 
all  surroundings  shines  forth  out  of  the  obscurity  of 
common-plac£,  selfish  existence!  Every  detail  remains 
vivid;  the  act  and  all  its  accessories  of  environment  or 
circumstance  are  accurately  preserved. 

So  with  our  Personalities.  It  is  possible  to  so  illumine 
our  life  with  noble  and  unselfish  deeds  and  thoughts  that 
it  shall  remain  a  vivid  and  pleasant  memory  to  our 
Higher  Ego  throughout  eternal  vistas.  It  is,  also,  pos- 
sible to  permit  the  consciousness  of  our  divine  Self  to  be 
so  drowned  in  the  clamor  of  the  senses,  to  be  so  sup- 
pressed by  a  wicked,  selfish,  or  even  a  vain  or  idle  life,  that 


1 54  A   STUDY   OF   THE   SOUL. 

no  record  is  preserved.  Such  a  life  is  a  day  in  which 
"  nothing  happened  to  us";  forgotten,  not  because  of 
this,  but  rather  because  we  permitted  it  to  pass  without 
making  it  live  in  our  memory  by  some  good  deed  done  to 
our  fellow-men. 

Such  will  be  the  fate  of  most  of  the  Personalities  now 
upon  the  human  stage.  The  biblical  warning,  "  Behold, 
they  are  neither  hot  nor  cold,  therefore  will  I  spew  them 
out  of  my  mouth,"  contains  an  occult  truth  it  would  be 
well  to  ponder.  The  memory  of  such  lives  will  be  taken 
to  Devachan,  to  be  dreamed  over  and  their  foolish  fancies 
enacted  in  pleasant,  illusory  "-castles  in  the  air,"  and 
the  soul  will  then  be  returned  to  earth  for  renewed  oppor- 
tunities to  live  a  higher,  nobler  life.  But  beyond  Devachan 
such  lives  can  not  pass.  There  their  cycle  terminates 
forever  as  surely  as  that  of  the  animal  soul  terminates  in 
latency.  It  can  not  be  too  strongly  impressed  that  only 
truly  spiritual  or  unselfish  deeds  survive  in  the  eternities 
of  the  memory  of  the  Higher  Ego,  for  like  causes  can 
only  produce  like  results.  Animal,  earthly,  or  kamic 
causes  can  not  be  followed  by  spiritual  effects;  the  stream 
can  not  rise  higher  than  its  source. 

There  is  yet  one  aspect  of  the  Personality  which  must 
be  considered  before  we  can  fully,  or  even  partially,  grasp 
its  entire  functions  and  potencies.  This  is  the  possibility 
of  its  complete  separation  from  the  Higher  £go  through 
deliberately  choosing  the  low,  sensuous  plane  of  the 
Quaternary,  and  the  cruel,  conscienceless  struggle  for  ex- 
istence which  there  has  its  normal  field  of  activity.  By 
stifling  the  voice  of  the  Higher  Ego,  or  conscience;  by 
allying  itself  to  evil;  by  vice  and  crime  committed  with 
the  full  realization  that  they  are  vices  and  crimes — there 


THE   PERSONALITY.  155 

becomes  possible  for  the  Personality  the  fate  of  its  utter 
and  entire  extinction.  The  rationale  of  this  may  be 
readily  understood  by  what  has  already  been  explained 
as  to  its  post-mortem  history.  We  have  seen  how  in- 
tensely the  presence  of  the  Thinking  Principle,  the  Re- 
incarnating Ego,  rationalizes  those  which  before  were 
merely  animal  passions  and  desires.  If,  now,  the  Higher 
Manas  fail  entirely  to  spiritualize  these,  the  "  I  am  myself" 
of  such  a  person  is  only  that  of  an  animal — more  cunning, 
more  selfish,  more  conscienceless  and  more  cruel,  by  a 
thousand  fold,  than  if  the  Higher  Ego  had  never  incar- 
nated within  it.  The  whole  of  the  energy  aroused  and 
imparted  by  the  latter  is  absorbed  by  the  human  animal. 
Instead  of  burning  for  a  time  in  Kama  Loca,  like  the 
smoking  wick  of  a  candle  whose  flame  has  been  ex- 
tinguished, this  being  enters  this  plane  at  death  with  all 
its  potencies  for  evil  in  full  activity.  No  Devachan  is  pos- 
sible; and  as  all  its  desires  rage  furiously  earthwards,  their 
very  force  will  carry  it  speedily  to  a  new  reincarnation, 
and  we  then  have  a  Jesse  Pomeroy,  or  a  Deeming,  horri- 
fying mankind  by  his  atrocious  crimes.  So  great  may 
have  been  the  impetus,  so  powerful  the  energy  thus 
robbed  from  Manas,  that  a  series  of  these  human-animal 
incarnations  may  occur,  each  more  soddenly  brutal  than 
the  last,  until  an  incarnation  such  as  a  jabbering  idiot  at 
the  end  prefaces  the  final  plunge  into  animal  latency.  As  a 
nascent  center  of  human  consciousness,  the  human-animal 
Personality  can  not  be  destroyed;  but  it  is  evident  that  it 
can  so  cut  itself  off  from  the  Higher  Ego  upon  one  hand, 
and  from  the  natural  evolutionary  activities  of  the  up- 
coming animal  monads  upon  the  other,  that  it  is  quite 
separated  from  all  chance  of  progress  during  incalculable 


156"  A   STUDY   OF   THE   SOUL. 

periods.  For  the  same  widening  of  the  area  of  its  evil 
nature  which  cut  it  off  as  unlike  and  unassimilable  by  the 
Higher  Ego,  also  made  it  unlike  and  superior  in  evil  to 
the  kingdom  below;  and  it  can  n  jt,  therefore,  re-enter  this. 
Of  its  fate,  however,  after  it  has  lost  all  of  its  borrowed 
glory,  and  after  it  no  longer  recognizes  itself  as  the  man 
who  had  once  the  opportunity  to  become  divine,  it  is  use- 
less to  speculate.  It  is  enough  to  know  that  the  suffer- 
ings of  such  a  Personality  must  be  awful,  indescribable. 
For  whether  he  reincarnate,  immediately,  or  whether,  this 
reincarnation  being  for  karmic  reasons  impossible,  he 
obsesses  poor  "mediums,"  to  their  ultimate  sharing  of 
his  fate,  alike  must  he  expiate  to  the  full  every  crime  or 
evil  thing  done  during  the  time  he  forged  the  chains, which 
bound  him  to  so  terrible  a  destiny. 

This  is  a  fate  which  can  overtake  every  human  Person- 
ality, and  the  fact  should  be  known  as  an  evolutionary 
possibility.  There  are  too  many  evident  failures  upon 
the  purely  physical  plane — too  many  infant  deaths — not  to 
make  it  plain  by  correspondence  and  analogy  that  there 
may  be  also  failures  upon  the  mental  plane.  Let  each 
one  who  considers  himself  too  far  over  the  line  of  danger 
pause,  and  seriously  question  himself  as  to  whether  his 
life  is  lighted  by  the  pure  flame  of  spirituality,  or  whether 
he  is  not,  after  all,  living  an  unsuspected  life  of  merely 
animal  emotions,  instincts  and  appetites,  intellectualized 
to  such  a  brilliancy  that  the  glow  may  prove  a  false 
beacon  light  to  the  ultimate  wreckage  of  his  soul  ;  for  it 
can  not  be  too  often  nor  too  strongly  insisted  upon  that  no 
amount  of  mere  intellectuality  removes  us  from  the  animal 
plane  to  the  safety  of  spiritual  existence.  Altruism  is  the 
law;  compassion,  the  means;  self-sacrifice,  the  surety,  of 
existence  upon  the  stable  spiritual  planes  of  being. 


THE    PERSONALITY.  157 

The  monadic  base  upon  which  our  center  of  conscious- 
ness rests  is  alone  eternal  and  immortal.  Our  Higher 
Ego  depends  for  its  immortality  upon  rising  to  this 
monadic  base  in  its  conscious  functioning.  In  a  much 
greater  degree  is  the  personal  Ego  dependent  upon  the 
Higher  for  its  promise  of  eternal  life.  All  turns,  as  we 
have  seen,  -upon  the  plane  in  which  the  personal  "  I" 
habitually  functions;  upon  how  deeply  it  permits  itself  to 
be  dragged  below  the  Divine  plane  to  that  of  mortal  pas- 
sions and  desires.  Meanwhile,  as  our  Higher  Ego  gathers 
strength  and  expands  its  consciousness  through  this  expe- 
rience of  many  lives,  its  reflections  in  material  incarna- 
tions, or  personal  "  I  am  I's,"  become  also  stronger,  and 
the  loss  of  any  one  of  them«  through  having  been  over- 
come by  sensuous  attraction  grows  more  serious,  both  to 
Higher  Ego  and  lower  personality.  For  the  mutual  re- 
action and  interdependence  of  the  (Higher)  Ego  free  and 
the  (lower)  Ego  incarnated,  are  very  great,  or  successive 
incarnations  under  the  iron  law  of  cause  and  effect  would 
not  take  place  as  they  now  inevitably  do. 


CHAPTER  X. 

POST-MORTEM  STATES  OF  CONSCIOUSNESS. 

a  recognition  of  the  truth  of  the  continuous  evo- 
lution  of  the  soul  by  means  of  Reincarnation  pre- 
cludes all  such  puerile  and  childish  conceptions  of  Post- 
mortem states  as  the  Christian's  "  heaven"  and  "  hell,"  the 
Spiritualist's  "  Summerland,"  or  the  materialist's  blank 
negations,  it  becomes  necessary  to  examine  into  this 
phase  of  the  Ego's  existence  from  the  view-point  of  the 
larger  philosophy.  As  few  men  have  evolved  the  ability 
to  consciously  penetrate  during  life  to  those  inner  planes 
where  the  Reincarnating  Ego  of  necessity  retires  upon  the 
death  of  its  physical  body,  itfollows  that  the  teachings  con- 
cerning the  Post-mortem  states  of  consciousness  are  some- 
what ex  cathedra.  Nor  is  there  anything  derogatory  to 
intellectual  dignity  in  accepting  statements  of  this  na- 
ture from  those  who  are  in  a  position  to  know  as  sufficient 
evidence  of  the  facts.  We  willingly  accept  the  statements 
of  astronomers,  mathematicians,  chemists,  etc.,  as  to  facts 
beyond  our  reach  physically,  and  often  above  our  percep- 
tion intellectually,  because  they  are  known  to  be  experts 
by  virtue  of  study  along  these  particular  lines.  We  are  un- 
der equal  obligations  to  accept  information  or  facts  con- 
cerning the  spiritual  aspects  of  our  being  from  known  stu- 
dents and  experts  in  these  fields.  Both  classes  of  data 
are  equally  capable  of  personal  verification — the  one  by 
the  exercise  of  our  intellectual,  the  other  by  our  spiritual, 
faculties.  And  spiritual  truths  at  first  veiled  by  spir- 
itual blindness  may  be  perceived  later  by  persistent 
cultivation  of  the  spiritual  faculties,  for  growth  and  power 


POST-MORTEM    STATES    OF   CONSCIOUSNESS.        159 

follow  exercise  of  these  as  certainly  as  that  using  the  ham- 
mer enlarges  and  strengthens  the  biceps  of  a  blacksmith. 

However,  information  and  knowledge  concerning  these 
post-mortem  states  are  not  purely,  nor  even  largely, 
ex  cathedra.  The  teaching  has  all  the  authority  of  a  phil- 
osophic hypothesis  which  fully  explains  and  synthesizes 
the  phenomena  within  its  proper  territory.  Were  there 
no  other  reason  for  accepting  it,  the  fact  that  it  explains 
the  chaotic  phenomena  of  "spiritualism"  would  alone 
entitle  it  to  our  respectful  consideration;  and  when  to  these 
are  added  large  classes  of  cognate  and  quite  unclassified 
supersensuous  facts,  it  may  be  said  to  rest  upon  a  strictly 
philosophic  and  scientific  basis. 

The  Theosophic  classification  of  these  Post-mortem  or 
ante-natal  states  is  into  Kama  Loca,  Devachan,  and 
Nirvana — terms  borrowed  from  the  Sanscrit  because  of 
the  want  of  accurate  English  synonyms.  These  are  simply 
states  of  consciousness,  dependent  upon  the  relation  of 
Ego  to  its  material  vestments  and  environments.  Our 
ordinary  waking  .consciousness  is  dependent  upon  and 
conditioned  by  the  sense  organs  of  the  body,  being  the 
result,  as  pointed  out  in  the  chapter  upon  the  Physiologi- 
cal Evidence  of  the  Soul,  of  innumerable  molecular  shocks 
or  changes  arising  chiefly  without,  but  also  within,  the 
organism.  Deprived  of  sense  organs  by  death,  conscious- 
ness depends  upon  the  ability  of  the  Ego  to  function  upon 
interior  planes  of  ethereal  substance.  The  ordinary  man 
has  not  evolved  to  the  point  of  being  able  to  do  this,  so 
that  after  complete  separation  from  his  lower  and  more 
truly  "material"  principles  his  consciousness  becomes  sub- 
jective— a  state  analogous  to  pure  dream,  and  undisturbed 
by  any  real,  objective  phenomena  whatever.  Before 


160  A    STUDY    OF   THE   SOUL. 

reaching  this  state  of  pure  subjectivity,  however,  the  con- 
sciousness has  to  pass  through  a  process  of  gradually 
abandoning  these  lower  vehicles.  This  condition  of  mixed 
objectivity  and  subjectivity  is  termed  Kama  Loca;  that  of 
pure,  dreaming  subjectivity,  Devachan ;  while  Nirvana 
may  be  defined  as  consciousness  upon  planes  so  far  inte- 
rior to  this  one  of  molecular  matter  that  he  who  enters 
it  self-consciously  can  never  return  to  lower  worlds — 
loses  all  possibility  of  response  to  molecular  vibration. 
All  are  in  their  nature  and  essence  subjective  states  of 
being,  as,  indeed,  all  consciousness  necessarily  is.  The 
Conscious-Aspect  of  the  Causeless  Cause  ever  appears 
subjective  in  its  relation  to  the  Substance-Aspect,  its  ma- 
terial vehicle. 

Since  physical  consciousness  is  manifested  on  the 
physical  plane  of  matter,  which  latter  to  our  senses  is  cer- 
tainly a  place,  in  like  manner  Kama  Loca  consciousness, 
being  limited  to  the  lower  astral  plane  of  substance,  may 
also  be  understood  as  connected  with  locality,  that  lo- 
cality being  the  Linga  Sharira  of  the  earth.  But  these 
associations  of  locality  are  not  essential.  The  place 
where  consciousness  is  experienced  is  nothing;  the  state 
itself,  everything. 

All  states  of  consciousness,  too,  may  be  actually  expe- 
rienced while  the  body  is  on  the  physical  plane,  and  all 
have  their  physical  correspondences  in  our  ordinary 
waking  consciousness.  An  Arhat  attains  to  Nirvana 
while  yet  in  the  physical  body,  because  he  has,  through 
the  efforts  of  his  trained  will,  risen  beyond  the  limitations 
of  this  vehicle  for  purely  sensuous  consciousness.  An  or- 
dinary man  experiences  Devachan  on  earth.  The  day- 
dreamer,  building  "castles  in  the  air,"  very  closely  ap- 


POST-MORTEM    STATES    OF   CONSCIOUSNESS.        l6l 

proximates  this  condition,  because  his  mind  has  cast  off, 
for  a  time,  its  material  fetters,  and  functions  on  an  inner 
and  more  spiritual  plane.  The  sensual  and  passionate 
man  finds  himself  very  closely  approximating  the  Kama 
Loca  state  when  yielding  to  the  angry  impulses  of  his 
lower  nature,  for  the  reason  that  his  consciousness  is  then 
limited  to  the  physical  correspondence  of  that  plane. 
The  analogous  states  of  day-dreaming,  anger,  or  passion, 
are  not  accurately  identical  with  Devachan  or  Kama 
Loca,  for  the  reason  that  with  the  former  states  there  is 
always  the  modification  of  the  Thinking  Principle  through 
its  connection  with  the  body,  while  in  the  latter  this  union 
is  severed  by  death,  and  the  impeding  action  of  our  phys- 
ical senses  due  to  physical  stimuli  is  withdrawn.  Still, 
we  will  be  best  able  to  understand  the  nature  of  the  real 
Kama  Loca  and  Devachan  by  a  close  study  of  their 
physical  analogies,  for,  as  we  have  said,  they  are  the 
actual  states,  excepting  for  this  modification  by  the 
physical  body  and  lower  principles.  It  is  the  one  center 
of  consciousness,  modified  by  the  vehicle  which  expresses 
its  dominating  condition;  while  in  the  body,  if  in  a 
passion,  the  Animal  Soul,  or  vehicle  for  the  expression  of 
this  form  of  mental  energy,  is  of  necessity  used — as  a  me- 
chanic is  compelled  to  take  up  a  different  tool  when  he 
wishes  to  cut  from  that  he  uses  for  polishing  only.  On 
the  other  hand,  this  passional  vehicle  could  not  be  em- 
ployed for  devachanic  day-dreams;  one  can  not  build 
castles  in  the  air  while  in  a  furious  passion. 

It  must  not  be  understood  from  the  above  that''  the 
Higher  Ego  ever  gets  into  a  passion,  or  in  any  similar 
emotional  state,  itself.  All  these  passional  activities  be- 
long to  the  consciousness  of  the  various  hierarchies  synthe- 


1 62  A   STUDY   OF   THE   SOUL. 

sized  in  man's  body.  The  kama-manasic  reflection  of  the 
Higher  Ego  is  the  agent  by  means  of  which  the  latter  is 
brought  into  sense  relations  with  this  plane,  and  this  cen- 
ter of  consciousness  vibrates  from  one  to  another  of  these 
vehicles  under  the  impelling  influence  of  the  personal  will. 
This  personal  will  is  the  reflected  will  of  the  Higher  Ego 
tainted  and  colored  by  the  desires  and  delights  of  sen- 
suous existence.  It  is  thus  the  offspring  of  the  personal 
or  kama-manasic  consciousness,  and  represents  the  under- 
lying motive  which  directs  our  whole  personal  existence. 
It  is  created  by  kama-manasic  or  brain  thought,  which 
thought  arises  out  of  the  physical  stimuli  of  sensuous  ex- 
istence. Thus  is  seen  the  nature  of  the  intimacy  between 
body  and  soul,  and  also  the  importance  of  controlling  the 
kama-manasic  or  lower  brain  thought,  or  of  not  permitting 
these  sensuous  stimuli  to  engross  the  entire  attention  of 
this  center  of  consciousness.  "As  a  man  thinks,  so  he  is." 
If  we  continuously  find  ourselves  getting  into  rages,  it  is 
not,  as  most  of  us  delude  ourselves  into  fancying,  the  result 
of  an  unhappy  combination  of  environing  circumstances, 
but  because  we  live  habitually  upon  this  level.  If  our 
desires  really  ran  in  the  direction  of  purity  and  spirituality, 
the  same  set  of  circumstances  would  arouse  no  corre- 
sponding vibrations  within  us ;  we  would  be  non-receptive 
to  them,  as  completely  as  we  now  are  to  the  ultra-violet 
rays  of  the  spectrum.  Through  all  the  psychic  storms 
raging  in  the  body,  the  Higher  Ego  is  only  a  spectator, 
powerless  to  affect  the  result  except  as  its  lower  reflection 
controls  or  yields  to  the  tempest  of  vibrations  arising  in 
these  rajasic  elementals. 

The  effect  of  permitting  the  center  of  consciousness  to 
wander  from  plane  to  plane,  according  as  this  or  that  desire 


POST-MORTEM    STATES    OF    CONSCIOUSNESS.         163 

demands  a  hearing  or  clamors  for  its  attention,  is  more 
far-reaching  than  is  generally  recognized.  It  is  the  karmic 
agent  which  is  largely  determining  the  conditions  of  our 
next  subjective  life  as  well  as  the  following  incarnation. 

Perhaps  a  resort  to  object  teaching  may  help  to  eluci- 
date this.  Let  us  suppose  man  to  be  living  within  a  hol- 
low sphere  or  globe,  modeled  after  the  fashion  of  that  he 
now  lives  upon.  Let  us  further  suppose  this  globe  to  have 
a  north  and  south  pole — that  is,  a  spiritual  and  material 
extreme.  An  equator  would  then  divide  its  upper  spirit- 
ual from  its  lower  material  hemisphere.  Below  this 
equator  would  be  the  physical  and  Kama  Loca  conscious- 
ness; above,  the  devachanic  and  nirvanic.  At  the  upper 
pole  would  be  the  ethereal,  spiritual  attraction  of  his 
Higher  Self;  at  the  lower,  the  kamic  desires  of  his  physi- 
cal body,  and  each  constantly  exerting  its  utmost  power 
to  draw  his  kama-manasic  center  of  consciousness  to  its 
own  pole.  This  kama-manasic  center  of  consciousness 
may  be  likened  to  a  smaller  globe,  ever  oscillating  within 
the  greater  one.  Now  it  floats,  under  the  impulse  of  some 
altruistic,  spiritual  impulse,  far  above  the  dividing  equator 
into  the  spiritual  region.  In  an  instant  it  descends  to  ma- 
terial zones,  as  some  earthly  desire  or  fit  of  passion  reaches 
it  through  the  physical  senses.  Thus  it  ever  vibrates  to 
the  impulses  arising  out  of  sensuous  experiences  unless 
controlled  by  the  will,  crossing  the  dividing  line  between 
the  spiritual,  permanent  life,  and  the  fleeting,  physical 
one,  perhaps  a  thousand  times  a  day.  With  some  excep- 
tionally spiritual  natures,  the  oscillation  may  be  within  the 
devachanic  zone  of  consciousness  for  days  or  weeks,  with- 
out ever  touching  the  fatal  equatorial  line  of  animal  appe- 
tites or  selfish  interests.  On  the  other  hand,  a  gross  sen- 


164 


A   STUDY   OF  THE  SOUL. 


The  Absolute 


sualist  or  materialist  might  keep  his  consciousness  oscil- 
lating entirely  below  the  line  of  spirituality  for  months,  or 
even  a  lifetime. 

Carrying  our  illustration 
a  step  further,  let  us  sup- 
pose this  larger,  or  en- 
vironing, globe  to  have 
the  power  of  responding 
to  and  recording  each 
visit  made  by  the  smaller 
globe,  representing  the 
kama-manasic  conscious- 
^ness,  to  any  of  its  planes 
or  zones,  either  deva- 
chanic  or  those  of  Kama 
Loca  or  Nirvana.  Let 
us  suppose,  also,  that 
this  record  takes  the  form 
of  a  kind  of  mental 
or  thought-deposit  within 
the  greater  globe,  and  which,  under  the  accretion  of 
numberless  visits,  grows  into  a  thought  fund,  so  to  speak 
— a  memory-deposit,  upon  which  the  Higher  Ego  can 
draw  in  order  to  maintain  a  conscious  connection  with,  or 
memory  of,  its  last  life  on  earth,  during  the  interval  which 
must  elapse  in  Devachan  before  it  can  again  descend  into 
the  world  of  causes  by  reincarnating. 

This  fanciful  thought-deposit  roughly  represents  a  fact 
in  nature;  for  just  as  our  physical  brain  responds  to  and 
records  molecular  vibrations,  so  do  spiritual  thoughts  arid 
desires  set  up  vibrations  upon  higher  planes,  and  which 
are  recorded  upon  their  permanent  tablets.  These  illus- 


POST-MORTEM   STATES    OF   CONSCIOUSNESS.         165 

trations,  crude  and  imperfect  as  they  of  necessity  are,  en- 
able us  to  catch  a  glimpse — a  shadowy  conception,  at  any 
rate — of  the  mutual  inter-relation  and  interdependence  of 
our  life  upon  earth  and  that  which  awaits  us  after  death. 
By  them  may  be  seen  how  we  are  daily  and  hourly  cre- 
ating the  conditions  which,  without  the  arbitrary  inter- 
ference of  any  personal  god,  will  determine  our  state  in 
the  next  or  subjective  phase  of  our  existence,  as  well  as 
the  conditions  which  will  environ  our  next  objective  life. 
After  death,  when  the  physical  vehicle  of  consciousness 
is  destroyed,  the  soul,  if  it  have  not  evolved  the  power  of 
objective  consciousness  upon  the  inner,  astral  planes,  is 
compelled  to  continue  its  existence  in  a  subjective  state. 
A  blind  man  cannot  see,  nor  a  deaf  one  hear;  they  lack 
the  physical  organs.  Therefore,  when  all  of  man's  physi- 
cal senses  are  annulled  by  death,  either  his  consciousness 
is  annihilated,  as  the  materialists  claim,  or  it  uses  inner 
senses  to  project  the  astral  plane  objectively,  or  it  must 
become  subjective — that  is  to  say,  it  must  enter 
upon  a  dreaming  state  similar  to  that  which  obtains 
during  life  when  the  physical  senses  are  paralyzed  by 
sleep.  Then  what  happens  after  death,  returning  to  our 
globe  illustration,  would  evidently  be  this:  The  grossly 
physical  attraction  at  the  lower  pole  being  removed,  the 
consciousness  rises  to  that  point  in  the  globe  where  its 
mental  deposits  during  life  have  been  of  sufficient  amount 
to  sustain  it.  It  can  no  longer  select  its  material  vehicle 
by  the  self-conscious  will,  for  this  has  become  par- 
alyzed by  the  disintegration  of  the  lower  Principles, 
through  which  it  had  been  accustomed  to  function,  and 
through  its  not  yet  having  learned  to  function  on  spiritual 
planes  and  in  spiritual  vehicles.  If,  now,  the  devachanic 


1 66  A    STUDY    OF   THE   SOUL. 

accretions  preponderate,  it  floats  to  this  zone,  and  remains 
until  it  has  received  its  reward  for,  or  rather  exhausted 
the  effects  of,  the  altruistic  and  elevating  thoughts  and 
aspirations  of  its  last  life.  If  the  Kama  Loca  deposits  are 
in  excess,  there  the  consciousness  remains  until,  having 
succeeded  in  separating  itself  from  these,  it  rises  to  its 
devachanic  stores,  or,  having  none  there,  it  again  returns 
to  earth  and  reincarnates,  or  slowly  fades  out  upon 
this  plane.  But  this  preponderance  of  deposits  does  not 
mean  simply  an  accurate  physical  or  mental  balancing 
of  accounts — a  casting  up  of  a  debtor  and  creditor  column. 
If  this  were  so,  few,  perhaps,  would  reach  Devachan. 
But,  just  as  the  material  attraction  was  greatly  in  excess 
during  life,  through  the  physical  or  sensuous  connection, 
so  now  the  spiritual  forces  at  the  upper  pole  exercise  a 
correspondingly  increased  influence  when  no  longer  coun- 
terbalanced by  the  body;  so  much  so  that  Devachan  is 
the  almost  universal  state  of  the  human  soul  after  death. 
For  the  personal  consciousness,  the  "  I  am  I,"  not  to  be 
drawn  into  the  safety  of  Devachan  means,  as  we  hinted 
above,  the  most  terrible  fate  for  it — its  utter  and  entire 
extinction.  Remember,  the  poles  of  our  globe  have  more 
attributes  than  being  merely  higher  and  lower,  or  outer 
and  inner.  The  great  the  all-important  difference  con- 
sists in  that  the  one  is  eternal  and  everlasting,  and  the 
other  mortal  and  impermanent.  Therefore,  we  see  but 
too  plainly  how  that  soul  which  has  cultivated  none  but 
grossly  material  affinities  during  life  will  find  itself  over- 
poweringly  drawn  down  into  the  abyss  of  matter  and  de- 
struction at  death.  This  is  the  true  and  esoteric  meaning 
of  the  scriptural  injunction  to  "lay  up  treasures  in  heaven." 
For  the  phrase,  "  Where  a  man's  treasure  is,  there  will  his 


/ 


POST-MORTEM    STATES   OF   CONSCIOUSNESS.         1 67 

heart  be  also,"  has  a  real  and  awful  significance  when 
read  by  the  light  of  Theosophic  teachings.  Herein  is 
found  the  explanation  and  meaning  of  that  mysterious 
tenet  running  through  all  religions — the  possibility  of  the 
eternal  loss  of  the  soul,  which  will  be  referred  to  later. 

It  might  be  supposed  that,  since  most  souls  live  to  a 
great  degree  upon  the  plane  of  sensuous  desires,  thereby 
laying  up  treasures  of  a  highly  undesirable  nature,  yet,  as 
they  pass  almost  without  exception  into  the  devachanic 
state  after  death,  the  effects  or  karma  of  these  evil  acts 
were  thus  avoided.  Not  so.  This  is  just  the  mistake 
that  Christianity  makes  when  it  translates  its  repentant 
murderer  from  the  gallows  to  eternal  bliss,  by  means  of 
its  unphilosophical  and  unjust  vicarious  atonement.  The- 
osophy  commits  no  such  blunder.  As  the  soul,  having 
experienced  the  spiritual  effects  of  the  spiritual  causes  set 
up  while  in  the  body,  or,  having  received  its  devachanic 
reward,  descends  to  reincarnate  in  another  body,  it  meets 
and  carries  forward  to  the  new  account  the  unbalanced 
debt  of  evil,  in  the  shape  of  the  skandhas  of  its  former  life. 
It  is  these  which,  following  the  reincarnating  soul  into  its 
new  body,  largely  determine  the  selection  of  that  body, 
through  the  law  of  karma.  As  Madame  Blavatsky  ex- 
plains, in  relation  to  these  skandhas,  or  karmic  results  of 
evil  acts  :* 

' '  They  are  destroyed  as  the  working  stock  in  hand  of  the  person- 
ality; they  remain  as  karmic  effects  or  germs,  hanging  in  the  air  of 
the  terrestrial  plane,  ready  to  come  to  life  as  so  many  avenging 
fiends,  to  attach  themselves  to  the  new  personality  of  the  Ego  when 
it  reincarnates." 

Thus  we  see  the  perfect  justice  and  reasonableness   of 

*Key  to  Theosophy. 


168  A   STUDY   OF   THE    SOUL. 

the  Theosophic  conception  of  these  post-mortem  states, 
as  well  as  why  we  are  daily  and  hourly  influencing  and 
determining  our  future  states,  both  in  and  out  of  our  future 
bodies.  The  man  who  finds  himself  in  a  diseased  or  de- 
formed body,  or  a  member  of  a  depraved  family,  can  not, 
in  the  light  of  karma,  charge  it  to  accident,  nor  injustice, 
nor  to  carelessness  nor  indifference  on  the  part  of  some 
god,  but  must  recognize  it  as  a  result  of  these  karmic 
"  fiends" — these  unexhausted  causes  created  during  his 
past  incarnation — which,  having  been  set  up  there,  have 
followed  him  into  the  only  plane  where  they  could  be  sat- 
isfied— that  of  physical  life. 

After  death  has  separated  the  soul  from  its  body,  what  is 
it  that  enters  Kama  Loca,  and  what  that  enters  Devachan? 
Man  is  constituted,  as  we  have  seen  in  its  proper  connec- 
tion, of  seven  Principles,  or  vehicles  for  consciousness.  To 
briefly  recapitulate,  these  are  :  The  physical  body;  its 
vitality,  or  Prana;  the  astral  model  of  the  physical  body,  or 
Linga  Sharira;  the  passional  center,  or  animal  soul,  com- 
mon to  man  and  the  animals,  called  Kama;  the  human 
soul,  or  Manas,  having  a  higher  and  a  lower  aspect;  the 
spiritual  soul,  or  Buddhi;  and  Atma,  or  pure  spirit.  The 
three  latter  form  the  upper  spiritual  Triad,  or  the  true 
reincarnating  Ego.  The  remaining  four  form  that  which 
is  known  as  the  lower,  or  material,  Quaternary.  At  death 
the  body  returns  to  the  matter,  or  "  earth,"  from  whence  it 
came;  the  vitality,  or  Prana,  rebecomes  one  with  its 
source — the  Jiva,  or  One  Life;  the  Astral  Body,  or 
Linga  Sharira,  slowly  fades  out,  also  returning  to  its 
source  The  soul  abandons  these  three  Principles  at 
once  and  forever  when  the  body  dies.  But  the  conscious- 
ness still  clings  to  kama — is  still,  though  deprived  of 


POST-MORTEM    STATES    OF   CONSCIOUSNESS.        169 

kamic  organs,  kama-manasic,  by  reason  of  its  long  associ- 
ation with  the  body.  There  are  thus,  immediately  after 
death,  five  Principles,  including  the  dual  aspects  of  Manas; 
in  Kama  Loca,  where  at  once  a  process  of  separation  be- 
gins. The  clamor  of  the  senses  is  stilled;  and,  no  new  im- 
petus being  given  to  Kama,  its  vibrations  cease  gradually 
to  command  the  Ego's  attention,  and  the  latter  becomes 
slowly  separated  or  freed  from  the  influence  of  this 
vehicle.  Until  this  separation  is  accomplished,  Devachan 
is  impossible.  When  it  is,  which  may  take  from  a  few 
moments  to  many  years,  according  as  the  relative 
strength  of  the  material  or  the  spiritual  in  the  soul,  the 
higher  Triad,  with  all  of  the  late  personality  worthy  of  im- 
mortality, enters  Devachan  as  a  Triad,  leaving  two  more 
Principles,  or  vehicles  to  become  skandhas  in  Kama  Loca. 
Thus  we  see  man  has  become  from  a  septenary  on  earth, 
a  Triad  in  Devachan ;  to  rebecome  a  septenary  upon  his 
next  reincarnation.  Irt  other  words,  the  true  man  puts 
on  a  new  body,  just  as  he  does  here  a  new  suit  of  clothes, 
only  that  the  union  is  more  intimate.  It  is  as  though  one 
could  not  see  without  glasses,  nor  hear  without  a  trumpet, 
etc.,  when  all  of  these  accessories  would  become  part  of 
his  necessary  clothing.  In  a  similar  way  his  lower  Prin- 
ciples, or  vehicles,  simply  relate  him  to  matter,  clothe  him 
with  a  "  coat  of  skin,"  by  means  of  which  he  is  brought 
into  sensuous  contact  with  material  things. 

The  Ego,  then,  must  remain  in  Kama  Loca  until  it  is 
freed  from  sensuous  desire,  and  fitted  for  the  quiet  bliss 
of  dreaming  Devachan.  The  actual  states  of  conscious- 
ness immediately  after  death  are  thus  described  by 
Madame  H.  P.  Blavatsky:* 

*Lucifer,  Jan.,  '89 


A    STUDY    OF   THE    SOUL. 

' '  The  Ego  receives  always  according  to  its  deserts.  After  the  dis- 
solution of  the  body,  there  commences  for  it  either  a  period  of  full, 
clear  consciousness,  a  state  of  chaotic  dreams,  or  an  utterly  dream- 
less sleep  indistinguishable  from  annihilation;  and  these  are  the 
three  states  of  conscionsness.  Our  physiologists  find  the  cause  of 
dreams  and  visions  in  an  unconscious  preparation  for  them  in  our 
waking  hours;  why  cannot  the  same  be  admitted  for  our  Post- 
mortem dreams  ?  I  repeat  it,  death  is  sleep.  After  death  there  be- 
gins before  the  spiritual  eyes  of  the  soul,  a  performance  according  to 
a  programme  learned  and  very  often  composed  unconsciously  by  our- 
selves, the  practical  carrying  out  of  correct  beliefs  or  illusions  which 
have  been  created  by  ourselves.  A  Methodist  will  be  a  Methodist, 
a  Mussulman,  a  Mussulman,  of  course  just  for  a  time — in  a  perfect 
fool's  paradise  of  each  man's  creation  and  making." 

This  is  the  key-note  to  these  Post-mortem  states  as 
struck  by  a  Teacher.  We  find  no  foolish  nor  impossible 
heaven  nor  hell  described,  but  states  analogous  to  and 
built  upon  our  subjective  life  while  in  the  body.  Death 
is  truly  a  sleep,  wherein  the  dreams  are  pleasant  or  hor- 
rible according  as  we  lay  the  foundation  for  them  while 
in  the  physical  form. 

But  all  Post-mortem,  or  even  all  subjective  life,  must 
not  be  included  with  those  which  are  analogous  to  sleep. 
The  opposite  poles  of  being  have  a  common  state  for  the 
Ego — that  of  being  awake  or  vividly  self-conscious ;  only 
at  the  material  pole  it  is  the  personality  or  Kama-Manasic 
consciousness  which  is  awake,  while  at  the  spiritual  pole 
it  is  the  Individuality;  or  Reincarnating  Ego,  which  is  in 
this  acutely  self-conscious  condition.  To  the  conscious- 
ness at  either  extremity,  that  of  the  other  seems,  perhaps, 
like  sleep  as  compared  with  its  own.  But  the  intervening 
Kama  Locaand  devachanic  conditions  are  a  true  sleep,  as 
compared  to  both  poles ;  only  in  Kama  Loca  the  dreams 


POST-MORTEM    STATES    OF   CONSCIOUSNESS.        I/I 

will  be  "chaotic,"  while  in  Devachan  they  will  be  as 
bright  and  as  beautiful  as  the  imagination  of  the  Ego  is 
able  to  construct  out  of  the  material  stored  up  from  the 
altruistic  efforts,  the  spiritual  aspirations,  and  the  highest 
idealizations  of  its  past  life. 

Passing,  now,  to  the  separate  consideration  of  the  con- 
sciousness in  Devachan,  it  is  evident  that,  being  en- 
tirely subjective  and  self-created,  in  a  manner  exactly 
corresponding  to  dreaming  creations  while  in  the  body,  no 
two  devachanic  experiences  can  be  the  same.  The  dis- 
tinction of  individuality  remains  as  sharply  drawn  as  while 
in  the  body.  On  attaining  consciousness  in  Devachan  we 
will  take  up  our  old  life  in  our  dream,  without  the  faintest 
suspicion  that  its  continuity  has  been  interrupted.  But 
how  changed!  Pain,  suffering,  hardships  and  sorrow  will 
all  have  disappeared,  as  before  a  magician's  wand.  Again, 
as  pointed  out  by  Madame  Blavatsky  :* 

' '  Devachan  is  an  absolute  oblivion  of  all  that  gave  pain  or  sorrow 
in  the  past  incarnation,  and  even  oblivion  of  the  fact  that  such 
things  as  pain  or  sorrow  exist  at  all.  The  Devachanee  lives  its  in- 
termediate cycle  between  two  incarnations,  surrounded  by  everything 
it  had  aspired  to  in  vain,  and  in  the  companionship  of  every  one  it 
loved  on  earth.  It  has  reached  the  fulfillment  of  all  its  soul  yearn- 
ings. And  thus  it  lives  throughout  long  centuries  an  existence  of 
unalloyed  happiness  which  is  the  reward  for  its  sufferings  in  earth- 
life.  In  short,  it  bathes  in  a  sea  of  uninterrupted  felicity,  spanned 
only  by  events  of  still  greater  felicity  in  degree. ' ' 

"It  is  with  those  whom  it  has  lost  in  the  material  form,  and  far, 
far  nearer  to  them  now  than  when  they  were  alive.  And  it  is  not 
only  in  the  fancy  of  the  Devachanee  as  some  may  imagine,  but  in 
reality.  For  pure,  divine  love  is  not  merely  the  blossom  of  a  human 
heart,  but  has  its  roots  in  eternity.  Spiritual,  holy  love,  is  immortal, 

*Loc.  cit. 


A    STUDY    OF   THE   SOUL. 

and  Karma  brings  sooner  or  later  all  those  who  loved  each  other  with 
such  a  spiritual  affection  to  incarnate  once  more  in  the  same  family 
group.  Again  we  say,  that  love  beyond  the  grave,  illusion  though 
you  might  call  it,  has  a  magic  and  divine  potency  which  reacts  on 
the  living.  A  mother's  Ego  filled  with  love  for  the  imaginary  chil- 
dren it  sees  near  itself,  living  a  life  of  happiness,  as  real  to  it  as  when 
on  earth — that  love  will  always  be  felt  by  the  children  of  the  flesh. 
It  will  manifest  in  their  dreams,  and  often  in  various  events — in 
providential  protections  and  escapes,  for  love  is  a  strong  shield,  and 
is  not  limited  by  space  or  time." 

The  devachanic  consciousness  is  also  most  lucidly  ex- 
plained by  another  MASTER*  of  Eastern  Wisdom.  He 
writes : 

"  Devachan  is  not,  cannot  be,  monotonous;  for  this  would  be  con- 
trary to  all  analogies  and  antagonistic  to  the  laws  and  effects  under 
which  results  are  proportionate  to  antecedent  energies. 

"There  are  two  fields  of  casual  manifestations:  the  objective  and 
the  subjective.  The  grosser  energies  find  their  outcome  in  the  new 
personality  of  each  birth  in  the  cycle  of  evoluting  individuality.  The 
moral  and  spiritual  activities  find  their  sphere  of  effects  in  Devachan. 

"The  dream  of  Devachan  lasts  until  Karma  is  satisfied  in  that 
direction,  until  the  ripple  offeree  reaches  the  edge  of  its  cyclic  basin 
and  the  being  moves  into  the  next  area  of  causes. 

"  That  particular  one  moment  which  will  be  most  intense  and  upper- 
most in  the  thoughts  of  the  dying  brain  at  the  moment  of  dissolution 
will  regulate  all  subsequent  moments.  The  moment  thus  selected 
becomes  the  key-note  of  the  whole  harmony,  around  which  cluster 
in  endless  variety  all  the  aspirations  and  desires  which  in  connection 
with  that  moment  had  ever  crossed  the  dreamer's  brain  during  his 
lifetime,  without  being  realized  on  earth, — the  theme  modelling  itself 
on,  and  taking  shape  from,  that  group  of  desires  which  was  most  in- 
tense during  life. 

"In  Devachan  there  is  no  cognizance  of  time,  of  which  the  Deva- 
chanee  loses  all  sense. 

*See  Notes  on  Devachan  by  "X,"  in  THE  PATH,  Vol.  V,  pp.  40 
and  80,  et  seq. 


POST-MORTEM    STATES   OF   CONSCIOUSNESS.        1/3 

"  (To  realize  the  bliss  of  Devachan  or  the  woes  of  Avitchi  you  have 
to  assimilate  them  as  we  do.) 

"The  a  priori  ideas  of  space  and  time  do  not  control  his  percep- 
tions; for  he  absolutely  creates  and  annihilates  them  at  the  same  time. 
Physical  existence  has  its  cumulative  intensity  from  infancy  to  prime, 
and  its  diminishing  energy  to  dotage  and  death;  so  the  dream-life  of 
Devachan  is  lived  correspondentially.  Nature  cheats  no  more  the 
devachanee  than  she  does  the  living  physical  man.  Nature  provides 
for  him  far  more  than  real  bliss  and  happiness  there  than  she  does 
here,  where  all  the  conditions  of  evil  and  chance  are  against  him. 

"To  call  the  Devachan  existence  a  'dream'  in  any  other  sense 
than  that  of  a  conventional  term,  is  to  renounce  forever  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  esoteric  doctrine,  the  sole  custodian  of  truth.  As  in 
actual  earth  life,  so  there  is  for  the  Ego  in  Devachan  the  first  flutter 
of  psychic  life,  the  attainment  of  prime,  the  gradual  exhaustion  of 
force  passing  into  semi-consciousness  and  lethargy,  total  oblivion, 
and — not  death,  but  birth,  birth  into  another  personality,  and  the 
resumption  of  action  which  daily  begets  new  congeries  of  causes  that 
must  be  worked  out  in  another  term  of  Devachan  and  still  another 
physical  birth  as  a  new  personality.  What  the  lives  in  Devachan 
and  upon  earth  shall  be  respectively  in  each  instance  is  determined 
by  Karma,  and  this  weary  round  of  birth  must  be  ever  and  ever  run 
through  until  the  being  reaches  the  end  of  the  seventh  Round,  or  at- 
tains in  the  interim  the  wisdom  of  an  Arhat,  than  that  of  a  Buddha, 
and  thus  gets  relieved  for  a  round  or  two,  having  learned  how  to 
burst  through  the  vicious  circle  and  to  pass  into  Para-nirvana. 

"A  colorless,  flavorless  personality  has  a  colorless,  feeble  deva- 
chanic  state. 

"  There  is  a  change  of  occupation,  a  continual  change  in  Devachan, 
just  as  much  and  far  more  than  there  is  in  the  life  of  any  man  or 
woman  who  happens  to  follow  in  his  or  her  whole  life  one  sole  occu- 
pation, whatever  it  may  be,  with,  this  difference,  that  to  the  Deva- 
chanee this  spiritual  occupation  is  always  pleasant  and  fills  his  life 
with  rapture.  Life  in  Devachan  is  the  function  of  the  aspirations  of 
earth  life;  not  the  indefinite  prolongation  of  that  'single  instant,' 


174  A   STUDY   OF   THE   SOUL. 

but  its  infinite  developments,  the  various  incidents  and  events  based 
upon  and  outflowing  from  that  one  '  single  moment'  or  moments. 
The  dreams  of  the  objective  become  the  realities  of  the  subjective 
existence.  Two  sympathetic  souls  will  each  work  out  its  own 
devachanic  sensations,  making  the  other  a  sharer  in  its  subjective 
bliss,  yet  each  is  dissociated  from  the  other  as  regards  actual  mutual 
intercourse;  for  what  companionship  could  there  be  between  sub- 
jective entities  which  are  not  even  as  material  as  that  Ethereal  body 
— the  Mayavi  Rupa  ? 

"The  stay  in  Devachan  is  proportionate  to  the  unexhausted  psychic 
impulse  originating  in  earth  life.  Those  whose  attractions  were  pre- 
ponderatingly  material  will  sooner  be  drawn  back  into  rebirth  by  the 
force  of  Tanha.  [Taiiha — desire  for  sensuous  existence.  J.  A.  A.] 

"  The  reward  provided  by  nature  for  men  who  are  benevolent  in  a 
large,  systematic  way,  and  who  have  not  focused  their  affections  on 
an  individual  or  speciality,  is  that  if  pure  they  pass  the  quicker  for 
that  thro'  the  Kama  and  Rupa  lokas  into  the  higher  sphere  of  Trib- 
uvana,  since  it  is  one  where  the  formulation  of  abstract  ideas  and  the 
consideration  of  general  principles  fill  the  thought  of  its  occupant. 

"Certainly,  the  new  Ego,  once  that  it  is  reborn  (in  Devachan),  re- 
tains for  a  certain  time — proportionate  to  its  earth  life, — a  complete 
recollection  of  his  life  on  earth,  but  it  can  never  visit  the  earth 
from  Devachan  except  in  reincarnation. 

"'Who  goes  to  Devachan?'  The  personal  Ego,  of  course;  but 
beatified,  purified,  holy.  Every  Ego — the  combination  of  the  6th 
and  7th  Principles — which  after  the  period  of  unconscious  gestation  is 
reborn  into  the  Devachan,  is  of  necessity  as  innocent  and  pure  as  a 
new  born  babe.  The  fact  of  his  being  reborn  at  all  shows  the  pre- 
ponderance of  good  over  evil  in  his  old  personality.  And  while  the 
Karma  [of  Evil]  steps  aside  for  the  time  being  to  follow  him  in  his 
future  earth  reincarnation,  he  brings  along  with  him  but  the  Karma 
of  his  good  deeds,  words,  and  thoughts  into  this  Devachan.  '  Bad  ' 
is  a  relative  term  for  us — as  you  were  told  more  than  once  before — 
and  the  Law  of  Retribution  is  the  only  law  that  never  errs.  Hence 
all  those  who  have  not  slipped  down  into  the  mire  of  unredeemable 


POST-MORTEM    STATES    OF   CONSCIOUSNESS.        175 

sin  and  bestiality  go  to  the  Devachan.  They  will  have  to  pay  for 
their  sins,  voluntary  and  involuntary,  later  on.  Meanwhile  they  are 
rewarded — receive  the  effects  of  the  causes  produced  by  them. 

"  Of  course,  it  is  a  state,  so  to  say,  of  intense  selfishness,  during  which 
an  Ego  reaps  the  reward  of  his  unselfishness  on  earth.  He  is  com- 
pletely engrossed  in  the  bliss  of  all  his  personal  earthly  affections, 
preferences,  and  thoughts,  and  gathers  in  the  fruit  of  his  meritorious 
actions.  No  pain,  no  grief,  nor  even  the  shadow  of  a  sorrow  comes 
to  darken  the  bright  horizon  of  his  unalloyed  happiness  :  for  it  is  a 
state  of  perpetual  'Maya.'  Since  the  conscious  perception  of  one's 
Personality  on  Earth  is  but  an  evanescent  dream,  that  sense  will  be 
equally  that  of  a  dream  in  the  Devachan — only  a  hundred-fold  inten- 
sified; so  much  so,  indeed,  that  the  happy  Ego  is  unable  to  see 
through  the  veil  of  evils,  sorrows,  and  woes  to  which  those  it  loved 
on  earth  may  be  subjected.  It  lives  in  that  sweet  dream  with  its 
loved — whether  gone  before  or  yet  remaining  on  earth  ;  it  has  them 
near  itself,  as  happy,  as  blissful,  and  as  innocent  as  the  disembodied 
dreamer  himself;  and  yet,  apart  from  rare  visions,  the  denizens  of 
our  gross  planet  feel  it  not.  It  is  in  this — during  such  a  condition  of 
complete  Maya — that  the  souls  or  astral  Egos  of  pure,  loving  sensi- 
tives, laboring  under  the  same  delusion,  think  their  loved  ones  come 
down  to  them  on  earth,  while  it  is  their  own  spirits  that  are  raised 
towards  those  in  the  Devachan. 

"Yes,  there  are  great  varieties  in  the  Devachan  states,  and  all  find 
their  appropriate  place.  As  many  varieties  of  bliss  as  on  Earth  there 
are  of  perception  and  of  capability  to  appreciate  such  reward.  It  is 
an  ideal  paradise  ;  in  each  case  of  the  Ego's  own  making,  and  by  him 
filled  with  the  scenery,  crowded  with  the  incidents,  and  thronged 
with  the  people  he  would  expect  to  find  in  such  a  sphere  of  compen- 
sative bliss.  And  it  is  that  variety  which  guides  the  temporary  per- 
sonal Ego  into  the  current  which  will  lead  him  to  be  reborn  in  a 
lower  or  higher  condition  in  the  next  world  of  causes.  Everything 
is  so  harmoniously  arranged  in  nature — especially  in  the  subjective 
world — that  no  mistake  can  be  ever  committed  by  the  Tathagatos 
who  guide  the  impulses. 


A    STUDY    OF   THE   SOUL. 

"  Devachan  is  a  'spiritual  condition'  only  as  contrasted  with  our 
own  grossly  material  condition;  and,  as  already  stated,  it  is  such  de- 
grees of  spirituality  that  constitute  and  determine  the  great  varieties 
of  conditions  within  the  limits  of  Devachan.  A  mother  from  a  sav- 
age tribe  is  not  less  happy  than  a  mother  from  a  royal  palace,  with 
her  lost  child  in  her  arms  ;  and  altho',  as  actual  Egos,  children  pre- 
maturely dying  before  the  perfection  of  their  septenary  entity  do  not 
find  their  way  to  Devachan,  yet  all  the  same,  the  mother's  loving 
fancy  finds  her  children  there  without  one  missing  that  her  heart 
yearns  for.  Say  it  is  but  a  dream;  but,  after  all,  what  is  objective 
life  itself  but  a  panorama  of  vivid  unrealities  ?  The  pleasure  realized 
by  a  red  Indian  in  his  'happy  hunting  grounds'  in  that  land  of 
dreams  is  not  less  intense  than  the  ecstacy  felt  by  a  connoisseur  who 
passes  aeons  in  the  rapt  delight  of  listening  to  divine  symphonies  by 
imaginary  angelic  choirs  and  orchestras.  As  it  is  no  fault  of  the 
former  if  born  a  '  savage'  with  an  instinct  to  kill — tho'  it  caused  the 
death  of  many  an  innocent  animal — why,  if  with  it  all  he  was  a  lov- 
ing father,  son,  husband — why  should  he  not  also  enjoy  his  share  of 
reward  ?  The  case  would  be  quite  different  if  the  same  cruel  acts  had 
been  done  by  an  educated  and  civilized  person,  from  a  mere  love  of 
sport.  The  savage  in  being  reborn  would  simply  take  a  low  place  in 
the  scale,  by  reason  of  his  imperfect  moral  development ;  while  the 
Karma  of  the  other  would  be  tainted  with  moral  delinquency.  .  . 

"Remember,  that  we  ourselves  create  our  Devachan,  as  also  our 
Avitchi,  while  yet  on  earth,  and  mostly  during  the  latter  days  and 
even  moments  of  our  intellectual  sentient  lives.  That  feeling  which 
is  strongest  in  us  at  that  supreme  hour,  when,  as  in  a  dream,  the 
events  of  a  long  life  to  their  minutest  details  are  marshalled  in  the 
greatest  order  in  a  few  seconds  in  our  vision,*  that  feeling  will  be- 
come the  fashioner  of  our  bliss  or  woe,  the  life-principle  of  our  future 
existence.  In  the  latter  we  have  no  substantial  being,  but  only  a 

*That  vision  takes  place  when  a  person  is  already  proclaimed  dead. 
The  brain  is  the  last  organ  that  dies. 


POST-MORTEM    STATES   OF   CONSCIOUSNESS.        177 

present  and  momentary  existence,  whose  duration  has  no  bearing 
upon,  no  effect  nor  relation  to  its  being,  which,  as  every  other  effect 
of  a  transitory  cause,  will  be  as  fleeting,  and  in  its  turn  will  vanish 
and  cease  to  be.  The  real,  full  remembrance  of  our  lives  will  come 
but  at  the  end  of  the  minor  cycle — not  before.  .  .  .  . 

"  Unless  a  man  loves  well,  or  hates  well,  he  need  not  trouble  him- 
self about  Devachan ;  he  will  be  neither  in  Devachan  nor  Avitchi. 
'  Nature  spews  the  lukewarm  out  of  her  mouth'  means  only  that  she 
annihilates  their  personal  Egos  (not  the  Shells,  nor  yet  the  6th  Prin- 
ciple) in  the, Kama  L/oca  and  the  Devachan.  This  does  not  prevent 
them  from  being  immediately  reborn,  and  if  their  lives  were  not  very, 
very  bad,  there  is  no  reason  why  the  eternal  Monad  should  not  find 
the  page  of  that  life  intact  in  the  Book  of  Life." 

In  Kama  Loca  there  is  no  entity  after  the  separation  of 
the  three  higher  Principles,  as  described,  has  taken  place. 
Ordinarily,  the  interval  required  for  this  separation  is  of 
brief  duration,  as  compared  with  the  following  period  in 
Devachan.  But  we  can  easily  see  that  a  soul  which  has 
lived  entirely  on  the  material  plane,  which  has  created 
strong  affinities  for  the  grossly  physical  pleasures  of  life, 
will  find  itself  unable  to  enter  the  devachanic  sleep  until 
these  have  loosened  their  hold.  When  this  separation  is 
completed,  however,  this  which  was  an  entity  becomes  a 
nonentity.  As  the  Key  says: 

"Then  the  kamarupic  phantom,  remaining  bereft  of  its  informing, 
thinking  principle,  the  higher  Manas,  and  the  lower  aspect  of  the 
latter,  the  animal  intelligence,  no  longer  receiving  light  from  the 
higher  mind,  and  no  longer  having  a  physical  brain  to  work  through, 
collapses.  It  falls  into  the  state  of  a  frog  when  certain  portions  of 
its  brain  are  taken  out  by  the  vivisector.  It  can  think  no  more, 
even  on  the  lowest  animal  plane. ' ' 

It  is  in  a  condition  similar  to  a  permanently  hypnotized 


178  A   STUDY   OF  -THE   SOUL. 

man.  The  intelligence  which  animated  it  is  withdrawn. 
It  is  a  mere  bundle  of  desires  and  passions,  slowly  disin- 
tegrating, or  changing  into  "  skandhas,"  or  effects,  wait- 
ing to  attach  themselves  to  the  new  personality  which  the 
Higher  Ego  enters  upon  reincarnating.  If  it  float,  or  is 
attracted  into  the  aura  of  a  "  medium,"  it  may  be  galvan- 
ized into  apparent  consciousness;  but  this  is  only  apparent. 
Just  as  a  hypnotized  person  will  obey  the  will  and  reflect 
the  thoughts  of  the  hypnotizer,  being  at  the  same  time 
utterly  unconscious  of  that  which  he  is  doing,  so  may  these 
"  shells,"  as  they  are  termed,  reflect  information  or  opin- 
ions from  the  mind  of  the  medium,  or  of  any  person  pres- 
ent. 

Still  there  is  a  Kama  Loca  entity,  proper,  which  is  the 
"lost  soul,"  to  which  reference  has  been  made.  As  we 
have  seen,  there  may  be  those  who  have  evolved  no  possi- 
bilities of  a  continued  life  in  Devachan,  with  its  succeed- 
ing reincarnation.  Cultivating  none  but  Kama  Loca  affin- 
ities during  physical  life,  the  soul  finds  itself  irresistibly 
drawn  downwards  to  this  zone  after  death,  leaving  noth- 
ing to  enter  Devachan.  Its  consciousness  therefore 
remains  in  Kama  Loca,  an  actual,  though  evil,  entity. 
Such  a  soul  partakes  so  closely  of  the  earth  condition  that 
it  is  semi-  if  not  wholly,  conscious  of  itself  and  of  its 
state,  especially  when  it  is  able  to  approximate  still  more 
closely  the  earth  consciousness  through  the  aura  of  a 
medium.  This  Being  realizes  that  he  has  nothing  before 
him  but  the  certainty  of  eternal  extinction,  and  clings  to 
his  Kama  Loca  life  with  all  the  tenacity  of  a  drowning 
man  to  the  handful  of  earth  he  has  grasped  in  slipping 
down  the  banks  of  the  fatal  stream.  He  it  is  who  haunts 
"  circles,"  and  renews  his  fading  stock  of  vitality  from  the 


POST-MORTEM    STATES    OF    CONSCIOUSNESS.         179 

life  forces  of  his  admiring  and  unconscious  victims.  It  is 
he  who  materializes ;  who  preaches  mock  sentimental  mor- 
ality, while  compelling  his. medium  to  practice  exactly  the 
reverse.  Being  allied  to  evil  while  in  the  body,  he  remains 
an  evil  force  without  the  body  until  dissolution  overtakes 
him  for  the  second  and  last  time. 

For  immortality  to  be  assured,  the  attraction  from  the 
spiritual  pole  of  our  being  must  not  be  severed,  which  will 
be  the  case  if  our  consciousness  does  not  rise  above  the 
fatal  equatorial  line  of  materiality  when  freed  from  the 
body  by  death.  As  no  soul  could  reincarnate  if  there 
were  not  in  its  consciousness  enough  physical  attraction, 
or  longing  for  sensuous  life,  to  draw  it  again  within  mate- 
rial limits  when  its  spiritual  tendencies  become  exhausted 
in  Devachan,  so  neither  can  it  rise  to  the  permanent  and 
immortal  pole  of  its  existence  if  there  is  not  in  its  con- 
sciousness enough  of  spiritual  attraction  to  take  it  above 
the  material  planes  of  being  when  its  body  is  removed  by 
death.  There  is  nor  can  be  no  "  forgiveness"  nor  "vica- 
rious atonement"  in  the  matter;  it  is  a  plain  case  of  cause 
and  effect.  Such  a  "  lost  soul"  has  surrendered  itself  en- 
tirely to  the  play  of  material  law,  and  it  can  but  submit 
to  the  destruction  and  disintegration  which  await  all  that 
find  expression  below  the  line  of  permanency  and  sta- 
bility. 

Remember  that  analogy  holds  on  all  planes;  that  just 
as  our  personal  consciousness  vibrates  during  one  physical 
life  above  and  below  the  line  dividing  the  material  from 
the  spiritual,  so,  in  its  greater  cycle,  the  true  man,  or  Re- 
incarnating Ego,  is  also  vibrating  between  these  poles — 
each  incarnation  being  but  a  single  vibration.  Now  a 
personality  drags  it  towards  the  material  pole;  now  an- 


180  A   STUDY   OF   THE   SOUL. 

other  elevates  it  far  in  the  direction  of  the  spiritual.  And 
just  as  the  personality  has  in  its  vibrations  but  one  end  in 
view — the  union  with  its  Higher  Ego — so  this  Higher  Ego 
has  in  its  reincarnating  vibrations  the  sole  object  of  unit- 
ing with  its  Higher  Self,  or  with  the  Divine  Consciousness 
of  Atma-Buddhi.  This  union  of  the  Higher  Ego  with  its 
Higher  Self  is  one  aspect  of  Nirvana,  and  this  is  why  an 
Adept  attains  Nirvana  during  life.  His  personal  con- 
sciousness has  united  itself  to  his  Higher  Ego/  and  this 
Higher  Ego,  united  to  the  Higher  Self,  enables  him  to 
thus  experience  temporarily  Nirvanic  consciousness. 

Of  Nirvana,  we  of  undeveloped  spiritual  perception  can 
of  necessity  know  but  very  little.  It  is  only  to  correct 
popular  misconception  that  it  is  referred  to  here  at  all. 
Able  Sanscrit  scholars  have  defined  it  as  "annihilation 
of  consciousness."  This  is  because  Western  thought  has 
become  so  infected  with  materialism  that  it  recognizes 
only  material  or  personal  consciousness.  This  is  annihil- 
ated; and  in  its  annihilation  we  find  supreme  happiness, 
for  it  enables  us  to  attain  to  the  immortality  of  true  spir- 
itual consciousness. 

In  the  non-recognition  of  spiritual  consciousness,  or 
consciousness  unlimited  by  the  illusions  of  matter,  lies  the 
source  of  the  Western  misapprehension  of  the  term  "  Nir- 
vana." As  the  human  consciousness  rises  more  and  more 
toward  the  spiritual  pole  of  its  being,  it  becomes,  pari 
passu,  less  limited  by  matter,  with  its  darkness  and  gross- 
ness,  and  finds  its  area  of  perception  continuously  widen- 
ing, until,  upon  reaching  Nirvana,  it  has  become  one  with 
the  Whole.  It  has  not,  by  any  means,  lost  its  individu- 
ality, but  its  consciousness  has  become  so  marvelously 
widened  that  it  embraces  the  whole  of  manifested  nature. 


POST-MORTEM   STATES    OF   CONSCIOUSNESS.         l8l 

If  this  glorious  enlargement  of  perception  and  con- 
sciousness, until  nature  has  no  further  secrets  hidden  from 
our  enlightened  senses,  can  be  called  annihilation,  then 
is  our  human  consciousness  annihilated;  not  otherwise. 
There  is  an  infinity  of  difference  between  the  annihilation 
of  our  puerile  personal  consciousness,  and  CONSCIOUS 
rest  in  Omniscience. 

All  these  states — Nirvana,  Kama  Loca,  and  Devachan — 
have  no  hard  and  fast  lines  which  separate  them  from 
each  other.  On  the  contrary,  each  is  subdivided  into  an 
infinity  of  minor  planes,  the  upper  of  which  pass  by  inap- 
preciable gradations  into  the  next  succeeding  ones. 
Therefore  Devachan  in  nowise  resembles  the  Christian's 
heaven  in  its  dreary  sameness,  nor  does  Kama  Loca 
plunge  all  into  the  one  pit  of  flaming  brimstone.  In  like 
manner,  Nirvana,  while  interchaining  its  lower  planes 
with  the  upper  of  Devachan,  passes  from  thence  through 
such  an  innumerable  succession  of  higher  zones  that  we 
find  a  variety  of  definitions  of  it  given,  and  all  correct  from 
the  point  of  view  taken.  Thus,  in  the  Secret  Doctrine  and 
other  writings  of  Madame  Blavatsky,  we  find  Nirvana 
spoken  of  as  a  synonym  for  the  laya  state,  or  "  that  of  the 
dissociation  of  all  substances  merged  after  a  life  cycle  into 
their  original  condition  of  latency."  Again,  it  is  stated 
that  as  Devachan  is  a  state  of  rest  between  two  lives,  in 
like  manner  Nirvana  is  a  state  of  rest  intervening  between 
two  world  chains.  As  this  would  imply  the  dissociation 
of  matter,  it  would  agree  with  the  preceding  definition, 
while  as  each  world  chain  includes  almost  an  infinity  of 
conscious  progress,  so  the  Nirvana  preceding  and  follow- 
ing any  one  of  them  would  differ  widely  in  its  degree  of 
consciousness,  while  still  answering  to  the  definition. 


1 82  A    STUDY    OF   THE    SOUL. 

In  another  reference  it  is  stated  that  Buddhists  teach 
that  only  "  two  things  are  objectively  eternal — Nirvana 
and  Akasa,"  which  again  throws  a  side  light,  so  to  speak > 
upon  this  state.  Farther  on,  we  are  told  that  a  Nirvanee 
can  not  return  during  the  manvantara  to  which  he  be- 
longs, which,  as  his  consciousness  has  become  dissociated 
from  matter  as  we  know  it,  again  agrees  with  the  first  def- 
inition. Again,  in  the  "Voice  of  the  Silence,"  we  are 
told  that  Nirvana — its  lower  planes,  no  doubt,  being 
meant — is  a  plane  of  exalted  spiritual  selfishness,  if  strug- 
gled for  and  obtained  while  the  great  mass  of  one's  fellow- 
men  are"  still  suffering  in  the  bonds  of  matter.  Thus  it  is 
taught  in  India  that  Buddha  and  several  of  his  Arhats  re- 
fused to  enter  Nirvana,  after  having  won  the  right  to  it; 
but  out  of  their  great  compassion  for  mankind  remain  as 
Nirmanakayas  in  order  to  help  its  upward  progress. 

Returning  to  the  question  of  annihilation  in  Nirvana, 
Madame  Blavatsky,  in  the  Secret  Doctrine,  says: 

"  To  see  in  Nirvana  annihilation  amounts  to  saying  of  a  man 
plunged  in  sound,  dreamless  sleep — one  that  leaves  no  impression  on 
the  physical  memory  and  brain,  because  the  sleeper's  Higher  Self  is 
in  its  original  state  of  Absolute  Consciousness  during  these  hours — 
that  he,  too,  is  annilated.  The  latter  simile  answers  to  only  one  side 
of  the  question — the  most  material;  since  reabsorption  is  by  no 
means  such  a  dreamless  sleep,  but,  on  the  contrary,  absolute  existence, 
an  unconditioned  unity,  or  a  state  to  describe  which  human  language 
is  absolutely  and  hopelessly  inadequate.  Nor  is  the  individuality, 
nor  even  the  essence  of  the  personality,  if  any  be  left  behind,  lost  be- 
cause reabsorbed.  For  however  limitless  from  a  human  standpoint  the 
p^ranirvanic  state,  it  has  yet  a  limit  in  eternity.  Once  reached,  the 
same  monad  will  re-emerge  therefrom,  as  a  still  higher  being,  on  a 
far  higher  plan,  to  recommence  its  cycle  of  perfected  activity.  The 
human  mind  cannot  in  its  present  stage  of  development  transcend, 


POST-MORTEM    STATES    OF   CONSCIOUSNESS.         183 

scarcely  reach,  this  plane  of  thought.     It  totters  here  on  the  brink  of 
incomprehensible  absoluteness  and  eternity." 

In  conclusion,  it  will  become  apparent  from  this  portion 
of  our  study  that  we  create  the  conditions  which  control 
our  Post-mortem  states  while  we  are  yet  within  the  phys- 
ical body;  that  life  in  and  out  of  the  body  pursues  its 
eternal  course  in  obedience  to  the  absolute  law  of  cause 
and  effect,  to  which  it  forms  no  exception ;  and  that  there- 
fore man  can  not  enter  upon  a  wiser  course  of  study  than 
that  which  relates  to  his  own  nature,  origin  and  destiny. 
The  object  of  our  most  strenuous  exertions  ought  to  be 
to  transfer  our  consciousness  from  the  impermanent  to 
the  permanent;  from  the  mortal,  to  the  immortal.  So 
long  as  our  personal  consciousness  is  limited  to  sensuous 
planes,  so  long  must  the  subjective  cycles  of  our  existence 
be  passed  in  an  unconscious,  sleep-like  condition,  with 
the  possibility  of  perishing  at  any  time  by  being  drawn 
permanently  within  the  attraction  of  matter.  Or  it  might 
be  caught  by  some  cataclysmic,  physical  change  in  one  of 
these  unconscious  subjective  states,  and  eons  of  ages 
elapse  before  another  opportunity  be  afforded  for  such  an 
undeveloped  Ego  to  again  take  up  the  evolution  of  its 
consciousness.  Suppose  our  world  went  into  Pralaya  be- 
fore certain  souls  had  attained  to  true,  or  spiritual  self- 
consciousness.  During  this  Pralaya  there  would  be  an 
universal  Nirvana  for  the  whole  of  humanity,  owing  to  the 
dissociation  of  matter — a  period  of  world  rest,  analogous 
to  the  night's  rest  between  days,  or  the  devachanic  be- 
tween lives.  But  such  undeveloped  souls  would  have  to 
enter  Nirvana  as  they  now  do  Devachan,  unconscious,  ex- 
cept for  this  false,  sleep-like  consciousness,  which  must 
soon  exhaust  its  material,  even  if  it  can  utilize  it  here  at  all; 


184  A    STUDY    OF    THE    SOUL. 

and  then  what?  There  is  no  more  an  earth  fitted  for 
them  to  continue  their  efforts  awaiting  the  termination  of 
the  devachanic  sleep,  and  they  must  remain  unconscious 
during  the  whole  sweep  of  Nirvanic  duration.  Hear  the 
same  Teacher:* 

' '  But  there  is  a  great  difference  between  conscious  and  unconscious 
being.  The  condition  of  Paranirvana  without  Paramartha,  the  self- 
analyzing  consciousness,  is  no  bliss,  but  simply  extinction  (for  seven 
eternities).  Thus  an  iron  ball  placed  under  the  scorching  rays  of  the 
sun  will  get  heated  through,  but  will  not  appreciate  the  warmth, 
while  man  will.  It  is  only  with  a  mind  clear  and  undarkened  by 
personality,  and  the  assimilation  of  the  merit  of  manifold  existence 
devoted  to  being  in  its  collectivity  (the  whole  living  and  sentient 
universe),  that  one  gets  rid  of  personal  existence,  merging  into  and 
becoming  one  with  the  Absolute,  and  continuing  in  full  possession 
of  Paramartha.  "t 

*Secret  Doctrine. 

fParamartha — Self-consciousness,  without  which,  as  stated,  even 
Nirvana  is  simply  extinction  while  it  endures. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

HYPNOTISM  AND  THE  HUMAN  SOUL. 

VT7HE  relation  of  the  soul  to  the  body  can,  in  certain  as- 
pects, be  made  clearer  by  a  study  of  the  phenomena 
of  Hypnotism  than,  perhaps,  by  any  other  method.  Most, 
if  not  all,  of  these  can  only  be  explained  by  admitting  the 
presence  and  superior  powers  of  a  center  of  conscious- 
ness, or  soul,  which  is  actually  limited  in  its  conscious 
manifestations  by  the  sense  organs  instead  of  being  helped 
by  them. 

As  bases  from  whence  to  survey  the  field  of  hypnotic 
phenomena,  we  must  return  to  the  scientific  and  self- 
evident  postulates  of  a  Unit  of  Consciousness,  and  the 
Compound  Nature  of  Man. 

By  a  unit  is  meant  a  center  of  consciousness,  which, 
like  the  mathematical  point,  excludes  from  its  conception 
all  measures  of  time  or  space.  Such  centers  are  infinite 
in  number  as  potentialities;  while  as  potencies,  actively 
ascending  the  spiral  of  evolution,  they  embrace  all  de- 
grees from  the  center  of  consciousness  present  and  potent 
in  an  "atom"  to  that  of  the  highest  Dhyani-Buddhi,  or 
"god."  By  an  atom  is  not  meant  the  materialistic  defini- 
tion of  this.  There  is  no  attempt  at  dividing  matter  until 
it  is  presumably  incapable  of  further  division,  and  then 
setting  up  this  hypothetical  infinitesimal  "  element"  as  a 
measure  of  both  the  material  and  the  spiritual  worlds,  as 
science  would  fain  do.  Holding  that  "  the  Universe  is 
worked  and  guided  from  within  outwards,"*  and  that  as 

*Secret  Doctrine,  Vol.  i,  p.  274. 


186  A    STUDY    OF    THE   SOUL.  i 

we  pass  from  the  outer,  material  phenomena  to  the  inner, 
spiritual  noumena,  matter  becomes  not  less  and  less  in  the 
size  or  extension  of  its  particles,  but  more  and  more 
ethereal  and  homogeneous  in  its  essence,  Theosophy  de- 
fines an  atom  as  the  seventh  or  guiding  principle  of  the 
first  differentiation  of  the  homogeneity  of  the  plane  above 
ours  toward  the  heterogeneity  of  this  material  plane. 

But  this  center  of  consciousness,  although  regarded  as 
unity,  still  presents  that  Trinity  in  Unity  which  accompa- 
nies all  conceptions  of  the  One  Absolute.  As  this,  though 
one  and  indivisible,  is  yet  matter,  or  substance;  force,  or 
motion ;  and  consciousness,  or  ideation — so  the  unit  of  con- 
sciousness we  term  human — which  is  only  that  of  an  atom 
extended  by  countless  accretions  of  material  expressions 
and  experiences — presents  the  triple  aspects  of  Thought, 
Will,  and  Feeling.  It  is  with  the  second  of  these,  or  Will, 
that  a  study  of  hypnotism  must  largely  deal. 

But  what  is  the  Will  ?     Locke*  declares  that: 

"That  power  which  the  mind  has  to  order  the  consideration  of  an 
idea,  or  the  forbearing  to  consider  it,  or  to  prefer  the  motion  of  any 
part  of- the  body  or  its  rest,  and  vice  versa,  in  any  particular  instance, 
is  that  which  we  call  the  will.  It  signifies  nothing  but  the  poyer  to 
prefer  or  choose,  and  thought  determines  it.  Desire  and  will  are  two 
distinct  acts,  and  desire  determines  the  will." 

Lewesf  says,  by  implication,  that  the  Will  is  only  the 
play  of  molecular  forces,  under  the  unconscious  law  of 
cause  and  effect.  Upham];  regards  the  Will  as  the  Un- 
derstanding or  Ideation  in  action — the  active  aspect  of 
Consciousness.  Bain§  holds  that  the  Will  is  that  power 
in  Consciousness  which  controls  spontaneous  ideation,  or 

*Essay  on  the  Human  Understanding.          JMental  Philosophy. 
tPhilosophy  of  Life  and  Mind.  ^Senses  and  Intellect. 


HYPNOTISM   AND    THE   HUMAN    SOUL.  187 

ideation  which  naturally  arises  in  the  course  of  evolution 
through  the  reaction  between  the  subject  and  its  envi- 
ronment. 

But  see  the  prince  of  modern  Agnosticism,  Herbert 
Spencer,*  seize  the  fiery  Fohat  of  the  Occultist  and  drag 
him,  a  helpless  captive,  at  the  wheel  of  his  materialistic 
chariot.  He  writes : 

"When  automatic  actions  become  so  involved,  so  varied  in  kind, 
and  severally  so  infrequent  as  no  longer  to  be  performed  with  unhes- 
itating precision — when  after  the  reception  of  one  of  the  more  com- 
plex impressions,  the  appropriate  motor  changes  become  nascent, 
but  are  prevented  from  passing  into  immediate  action  by  the  antago- 
nism of  certain  other  nascent  motor  changes,  appropriate  to  some 
nearly  allied  impression^  there  is  constituted  a  .state  of  consciousness 
which,  when  it  finally  issues  into  action,  displays  what  we  term  voli- 
tion. We  have  a  conflict  between  two  sets  of  ideal  motor  changes 
which  severally  tend  to  become  real,  and  this  passing  of  an  ideal 
motor  change  into  a  real  one  we  distinguish  as  Will.  Thus  the  cessa- 
tion of  automatic  action  and  the  dawn  of  volition  are  one  and  the 
same  thing." 

In  other  words,  the  mighty,  creative  volitions  of  a 
Shakespeare,  a  Goethe,  a  Dante,  a  Bacon,  an  Edison,  a 
Newton,  a  Harvey,  a  Galileo,  a  Kant,  a  Hegel,  or  even 
Spencer's  own  speculations,  are  merely  the  fortuitous 
emergence  of  one  set  of  "nascent,"  unconscious  motor 
changes  slightly  in  advance  of  other  equally  unconscious 
ones,  which  blind  chance  has  thus  caused  to  be  lost  to  the 
world  forever  !  What  a  relief  to  feel  and,  indeed,  know, 
by  "scientific  authority,"  that  the  horrible  visions  of  Dante 
were  not  deliberately  evoked,  but  were  enabled  to  "issue 
into  action"  in  advance  of  a  milder  set,  perchance  by 

^Principles  of  Pscyhology. 


188  A   STUDY    OF   THE    SOUL. 

the  unconscious  assistance  of  a  very  badly  digested  din- 
ner !  An  Occultist  would  declare  that  the  very  ability  to 
choose  even  the  subject  of  our  thoughts  indicates  an  inhe- 
rent power  in  consciousness  which  no  fortuitous  combina- 
tion of  material  molecules  could  ever  evoke,  though  all 
eternity  were  granted  it  in  which  to  exert  its  "blind  force." 
The  stream  cannot  rise  higher  than  its  source;  the  effect 
can  not  exceed  its  cause;  and  Will,  manifesting  as  an  as- 
pect and  power  of  Consciousness  on  this  material,  phe- 
nomenal plane,  must  have  its  origin  and  cause  in  that 
larger,  Cosmic,  noumenal  plane — the  Force-Aspect  of  the 
Absolute. 

Will,  then,  from  a  Theosophic  standpoint,  is  Desire  in 
action  guided  by  Ideation,  which  latter  again  is  the  active 
aspect  of.  Consciousness,  or  Consciousness  in  action.  In 
man,  Will  is  one  aspect  of  ^the  center  of  consciousness,  or 
Ray,  which  takes  its  source  directly  in  the  Absolute  or 
Unknowable,  and  around  which  has  evolved  the  feeling  of 
"I  am  I"  through  accretions  of  material  experiences  and 
expressions  in  the  manner  pointed  out  in  the  chapter 
upon  the  Individualization  of  the  Soul.  This  center, 
though  a  unity  in  essence,  is  a  trinity  in  aspect,  and  be- 
cause of  this  unity  of  base,  all  three  aspects  merge  into 
one  another,  or,  rather,  into  that  unity  of  which  they  are 
the  phenomenal  expression.  Will  selects  the  subject  of 
Thought;  yet  Thought,  again,  will  so  modify  the  Will  that 
we  find  ourselves  desiring  or  willing  that  which  before  we 
compelled  ourselves  to  think  it  desirable  was  repugnant  to 
us.  Feeling,  also,  particularly  in  its  lowest  aspect  of 
emotion,  will  modify  both  Thought  and  Will,  and  be  in 
turn  itself  modified  and  transmuted  by  them. 

This  brings  us  to  the  standpoint  from  which  we  have  to 


HYPNOTISM    AND    THE    HUMAN    SOUL.  189 

examine  hypnotism,  and  all  psychic  or  mental  phe- 
nomena. Will,  as  one  aspect,  function,  or  power  of  Con- 
sciousness, is  struggling  to  evolve  its  potencies,  now  be- 
numbed'and  paralyzed  by  its  primal  "fall"  into  matter. 
Thought  and  Feeling  are  likewise  in  the  thralldom  of  the 
flesh,  and  are  also  in  the  course  of  an  evolutionary  effort 
to  find  their  ultimate  state  of  full  and  free  expression. 
To  perfect  man,  all  three  aspects  of  Consciousness  must 
be  rounded  out  or  developed  symmetrically.  In  the 
natural  course  of  evolution,  emotion  emerges  first,  and  we 
see  in  the  limitations  of  the  animal  kingdom  the  effect  of 
asymmetry  in  the  evolution  of  only  one  aspect  of  Con- 
sciousness. As  we  have  seen  in  the  study  of  the  Evolu- 
tion of  the  Soul,  it  is  the  incarnation  in  human-animal 
forms  of  Egos  which  have  evolved  other  aspects  of  con- 
sciousness in  other  worlds  which  causes  the  great  and 
otherwise  inexplicable  hiatus  in  the  evolutionary  process — 
the  missing  link  which  so  puzzles  and  confounds  the  Dar- 
winians. Because  of  this  asymmetry  in  evolution,  men 
have  will  power  and  mental  energy  developed  in  various 
degrees  of  feebleness,  and  in  dissimilar  directions.  This 
accounts  for  the  ability  of  one  will  to  control  another, 
through  superior  development  along  some  particular  line. 
This  line  may  be  in  the  direction  of  evil  quite  as  often  as 
in  that  of  good ;  and  in  the  case  of  professional  hypnotizers 
it  is  almost  always  by  the  strong  development  of  some 
selfish  trait  of  the  character  that  they  are  enabled  to  over- 
power those  who  are  purer  or  even  more  intellectual  than 
they.  It  is  becoming  strong  in  evil  which  is  the  origin  of 
the  power  of  the  Black  Magician. 

Now,  to  the  Theosophist,  the  development  of  the  Will 
does  not  mean  the  empty  abstraction  which  it  conveys  to 


I9O  A   STUDY    OF   THE   SOUL. 

the  scientist.  It  is  the  becoming  potent  of  a  conscious 
force,  having  its  own  ratio  of  vibration,  and  using  a  mate- 
rial vehicle  in  a  manner  exactly  corresponding  to  force  on 
the  material  plane.  Hence,  when  a  hypnotizer  eompels 
another  to  obey  his  will,  he  has  subjected  him  to  an  actual 
force  conveyed  by  a  vehicle  of  matter  quite  as  certainly  as 
has  the  prize-fighter  when  he  "  knocKS  out"  his  helpless 
antagonist.  There  are  no  empty  abstractions  or  immate- 
rial agents  for  a  student  of  Theosophy,  however  much  his 
scientific  brother  may  be  compelled  to  resort  to  them. 
The  hypnotizer  has  directed  a  part  of  his  own  "nerve 
fluid"  upon  and  into  the  nervous  system  of  his  victim, 
where  it  remains  an  actual  force,  establishing  new  and 
modifying  centers  of  vibration,  which  act  in  obedience  to 
the  ideation  which  accompanied  it.  There  has  been  an 
actual  transfer  of  substance,  force,  and  consciousness — a 
setting  up  of  new  conscious  centers  in  a  manner  exactly 
analogous  to  the  new  centers  of  physical  or  molecular  vi- 
brations which  are  the  result  of  the  taking  into  the  system 
of  physical  remedies  or  "  medicines."  No  scientist  nor 
physician  has  ever  offered  a  rational  explanation  of  the 
methods  by  which  physical  remedies  act.  But  to  the  The- 
osophist  who  recognizes  vibratory  motion  as  the  univer- 
sally present  Force- Aspect  of  the  Causeless  Cause,  the 
reason  is  plain.  Such  physical  molecules  establish  innu- 
merable centers  of  vibratory  motion,  which  modify  the 
vibrations  of  the  molcules  in  the  physiological  or  patho- 
logical cells  of  the  body,  according  as  their  ratios  of  vi- 
bration are  multiples  or  "chords"  of  these.  The  "select- 
ive affinity"  of  the  physiological  empiricist  in  explaining 
the  action  of  drugs  is  but  a  formula  for  expressing  a  law  of 
harmonic  vibrations  of  whose  real  action  he  is  quite 


HYPNOTISM   AND   THE    HUMAN    SOUL.  19! 

ignorant.  In  like  manner  the  will  of  the  hypnotizer  estab- 
lishes innumerable  force  centers  which  prevent  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  Ego  from  controlling  its  own  sense  or- 
gans. It  is  the  same  kind  of  process  as  that  which  takes 
place  when  the  vibratory  centers  set  up  by  chloroform  or 
morphine  interpose  actual  physical  obstacles  between  the 
soul  and  its  sense  organs  through  the  "  affinity"  between 
their  vibratory  ratios  and  those  of  the  brain  molecules. 

Of  course,  scientists  will  deny  this.  The  very  name 
"  hypnotism"  had  its  origin  in  this  denial.  The  Paris  Acad- 
emy had  solemnly  "  sat"  upon  the  phenomena  exhibited 
by  Mesmer,  and  had  pronounced  them  pure  delusions. 
But  the  ghost  refused  to  remain  laid  at  their  bidding,  and 
so  Braid,  in  the  'thirties  of  this  century,  undertook  to  ex- 
orcise it  anew.  Being  honest  and  earnest,  he  was  soon 
compelled  to  admit  the  reality  of  the  phenomena  of  Mes- 
merism, but  denied  in  toto  that  the  will  of  another  had 
anything  to  do  with  their  production.  According  to  his 
theory,  the  phenomena  were  entirely  self-induced,  and  the 
will  of  the  operator  no  further  shares  than  to  merely  "  sug- 
gest" them  to  the  subject,  who  thereupon  hypnotized  or 
mesmerized  himself. 

Braid's  assumption  was  eminently  consistent  with  ma- 
terialistic teachings;  for  if  the  will  were  merely  a  func- 
tion of  matter  in  a  state  of  molecular  vibration,  and  had 
no  power  of  action  outside  the  molecular  environment 
which  created  it,  then  nothing  could  pass  from  the  hyp- 
notizer to  the  hypnotized,  who  must,  therefore,  be  the  sole 
factor  in  the  phenomena.  Proceeding  upon  this  assump- 
tion, he  re-named  these  "hypnotism,"  or  the  science  of  the 
sleep-like  states;  from  hypnos,  sleep.  This  name  has 
been  retained  by  science,  notwithstanding  that  the  theory 


'  192  A   STUDY    OF   THE   SOUL. 

of  Braid,  upon  which  it  was  based,  has  been  entirely  dis- 
proven  by  later  scientific  invest  gat'ons — notably  those 
conducted  by  members  of  the  same  Academy  which  had 
a  few  years  preceding  pronounced  Mesmerism  an  halluci- 
nation, or  worse.  As  there  are  psychic  and  subjective 
states  which  can  be  self-induced  without-the  interference 
of  any  exterior  will,  it  would  seem  proper  to  limit  the 
name,  "  hypnotism,"  to  these  self-induced  states ;  reserving 
Mesmerism  for  those  which  Mesmer,  in  modern  times  at 
least,  first  demonstrated.  However,  that  is  as  science 
may  elect.  Theosophy  retains  both  terms;  calling  those 
phenomena  hypnotic  which  emanate  from  or  are  originated 
in  the  plane  of  selfishness  or  Kama,  and  those  mesmeric 
which  proceed  from  the  higher  or  Manasic  plane.  One  is 
Black,  the  other  White,  magic.  These  differ  in  their  man- 
ner of  production,  in  the  material  vehicles  which  they 
employ,  and  in  other  ways,  which  will  be  pointed  out 
later.  It  will  thus  be  seen  how  important  a  bearing  the 
recognition  of  a  Unit,  or  center  of  human  consciousness, 
manifesting  through  the  several  vehicles  composing  the 
Septenary  nature  of  man,  has  upon  the  proper  under- 
standing of  the  phenomena  of  hypnotism  and  Mesmerism, 
as  well  as  various  allied  states,  such  as  somnambulism, 
trance,  thought-reading,  clairvoyance,  etc.  A  non- 
recognition  of  the  one  Unit,  functioning  differently  in  dif- 
fering vehicles  or  bases,  has  caused  the  most  curious  spec- 
ulations among  the  observers  of  these  phenomena.  For 
with  every  grade  of  depth  in  the  hypnotic  process  such 
new  and  unsuspected  mental  powers  made  their  appear- 
/  ance  that  it  seemed  the  startling  fact  that  there  were  sev- 
eral "  selves"  buried  in  the  personality,  distinct  and  dis- 
tinguishable from  the  one  we  recognize,  was  distinctly 


HYPNOTISM    AND    THE    HUMAN    SOUL.  193 

pointed  out.  In  fact,  as  the  number  of  these  apparently 
separate  persons  exhumed  out  of  one  body  by  hypnosis 
seemed  practically  unlimited,  the  deduction  fa irJy  followed 
that  as  consciousness  could  be  thus  split  into  a  series  of 
illusionary  personalities  there  was  no  real  conscious  en- 
tity, or  human  soul,  but  only  states  of  consciousness  de- 
pending upon  the  particular  form  of  "  molecular  activity." 
Still,  there  were  awkward  facts  for  the  "  molecular  activity" 
theory  to  account  for.  Although  the  enlightened  and 
philosophic  consciousness  buried  in  a  stupid  peasant's 
body  refused  to  believe  itself  identical  with  the  peasant, 
still  it  remembered  and  knew  all  about  the  peasant's  life 
and  mental  capacities,  thus  showing  a  unifying  something 
at  the  basis  of  consciousness.  And  this  followed  through 
all  the  separate  persons  which  were,  apparently,  exhumed 
out  of  the  one  Personality.  Each  knew  and  remembered 
all  about  those  below  it,  while  remaining  profoundly 
ignorant  of  any  above. 

At  this  perplexing  stage,  Theosophy  points  out  the  so- 
lution of  the  mystery.  The  one  Unit  and  Center  of 
Consciousness  on  the  physical  plane  unifies  and  connotes 
the  various  mental  states  pertaining  to  matter  into  our 
ordinary  consciousness;  the  waking,  willing,  thinking, 
feeling  "I  am  I."  But  this  same  center  of  consciousness 
can  and  does — under  proper  conditions — experience  the 
feeling  of  "I  am  I"  on  other  planes,  and  in  other  states 
of  matter.  Passing  to  the  lower  astral  plane  during  the 
waking-sleeping  state,  it  recognizes  itself  as  quite  a  distinct 
person  from  the  waking  one;  capable  of  flying,  leaping, 
and  many  things  then  impossible.  If  it  could  be  now 
told  that  it  was  the  waking  self,  it  would  naturally  deny 
this,  although  all  the  time  there  would  be  the  conscious- 
ness that  there  was  such  a  person  in  existence. 


194  A   STUDY   OF   THE   SOUL. 

Similarly,  on  planes  as  much  higher  than  the  waking 
as  this  is  lower,  it  would  no  doubt  be  disinclined  to  believe 
itself  the  same  limited,  stupid  person  it  is  when  its  spir- 
itual powers  are  so  dulled  and  obscured  by  matter. 

Thus  we  find  that  all  the  varied  phenomena  of  mes- 
meric, hypnotic,  clairvoyant,  magnetic — in  short,  all  nor- 
mal or  abnormal  mental  states  are  simply  the  one  con- 
sciousness, functioning  now  through  this  vehicle,  now 
through  that.  In  Mesmerism  and  hypnotism,  as  com- 
monly understood,  it  is  the  will  of  another  which  compels 
the  "  I  am  I"  center  of  consciousness  to  abandon  its  ordi- 
nary physical  vehicles  and  retire  to  others.  In  self- 
hypnosis,  such  as  is  done  by  all  so-called  "  mediums" 
when  they  really  get  into  the  trance  state,  exactly  the 
same  thing  occurs  under  the  force  of  their  own 'will.  And 
these  self-induced  states  may  also  be  divided  into  the  mes- 
meric and  hypnotic,  according  as  the  plane  upon  which 
the  hypnotizer  habitually  lives  is  selfish  or  unselfish, 
kamic  or  manasic. 

But  merely  to  say  that  the  Will  of  another  causes  these 
hypnotic  conditions  only  leaves  the  matter  where  we 
found  it;  especially  if  we  regard  the  Will  as  the  immaterial 
non-entity  of  materialism.  For  this  reason,  this  study 
was  preceded  by  an  inquiry  as  to  the  nature  and  functions 
of  the  Will.  We  have  seen  that  in  willing  there  is  an 
actual  transfer  of  substance  as  the  vehicle  of  force,  and 
both  these  under  the  guidance  of  Consciousness  in  its  ac- 
tive aspect  of  Ideation.  The  Cosmic  Will  is  known  in 
Occultism  as  Fohat,  and  the  human  will  is  but  one  of  its 
countless  correlations.  All  willing,  from  the  fohatic  to 
the  human,  is  a  controlling — or  attempting  to  control  or 
direct — that  primary  Force  or  Motion,  the  Force- Aspect  of 


HYPNOTISM    AND   THE   HUMAN    SOUL.  195 

the  Causeless  Cause.  Therefore,  hypnotism  is  an  at- 
tempt, by  means  of  the  will  of  the  hypnotizer,  to  modify 
or  control  that  molecular  motion  which  enables  conscious- 
ness to  manifest  in  the  organism  of  another  being. 

The  very  first  step  in  hypnotism  or  Mesmerism,  then, 
is  to  modify  the  rate  of  vibration  in  the  subject  sought  to 
be  influenced  until  it  becomes  identical  with,  or  a  ratio  of, 
our  own.  As  all  life  and  consciousness  manifest  through 
motion,  it  will  be  seen  how  necessary  that  the.  vibration 
in  any  two  subjects  sought  to  be  related  in  the  intimacy 
of  the  hypnotic  states  should  be  in  proportion,  or  har- 
monious. They  may  not  be  identical,  but  they  must 
stand  in  the  relation  of  harmonic  chords  to  each  other — 
unless  the  one  completely  replaces  the  other.  This  is  the 
solution  of  the  mystery  of  the  production  of  the  hypnotic 
state  by  gazing  at  bright  objects,  by  musical  or  sudden 
sounds,  etc.  In  gazing  fixedly  at  a  bright  object,  with  the 
will  directed  to  that  end,  the  point  in  the  human  brain 
which  correlates  spiritual  motion  or  intelligence  with  the 
material  plane  assumes  a  rate  or  ratio  of  vibration  identi- 
cal with  the  object  so  gazed  at,  and  the  hypnotized  body 
falls  into  a  similar  if  not  identical  state  of  consciousness. 
The  center  of  consciousness,  being  thus  compelled  to 
abandon  its  point  d'appui  with  its  material  frame,  either 
remains  in  a  dormant  condition  or  functions  through  one 
of  its  more  subtle  vehicles,  or  "  bodies."  In  case  of  self- 
hypnosis,  as  in  mediums  or  trance  seers,  the  "  I  am  I" 
usually  establishes  itself  upon  the  plane  of  matter  just 
above  the  physical,  known  in  Theosophy  as  the  astral, 
and  is  there  subject  to  all  the  hallucinations  and  illusions 
which  attend  upon  this  condition,  and  of  which  we  can 
form  a  very  good  idea  by  its  close  identity  with  the  ordi- 


196  A   STUDY   OF   THE   SOUL. 

nary  dreaming  state.  In  hypnosis  by  another,  with  or 
without  the  subject's  acquiescence,  the  center  of  conscious- 
ness is  forced  to  abandon  its  hold  upon  the  body  first  of 
all,  which  assumes  the  "  lethargic"  condition  of  Charcot 
and  his  school.  The  hypnotizer's  will  then  takes  com- 
plete possession,  and  the  subject  obeys  the  slightest  sug- 
gestion, either  spoken  or  mental,  relating  to  the  material 
plane,  such  as  leaping,  t  dancing,  assuming  grotesque  or 
absurd  positions,  tasting  the  same  object  as  sweet  on 
one  side  of  the  tongue  and  bitter  on  the  other,  seeing  re- 
flections in  pasteboard  mirrors,  or  pictures  upon  blank 
cards.  Rigidity,  or  tetanus  of  the  muscles,  also  occurs,  and 
a  thousand-and-one  other  acts,  over  which  scientists  have 
been  so  puzzled,  not  having  the  key.  This  key  is,  that 
every  one  of  these  acts,  from  tetanus  to  double  tasting  or 
picture-seeing  where  none  exist,  are  pure  "  suggestions," 
many  of  which  are  unconsciously  made  by  the  hypnotizer. 
He  has  possession  of  the  physical  brain  of  his  subject  to 
an  extent  of  which  he  is  little  aware,  and  it  responds  to 
his  most  subtle,  unworded  thought.  "  Suggestion"  is  only 
the  obedience  by  the  subject's  body  and  brain  to  the  same 
will  currents  and  finer  forces  by  means  of  which  he  gov- 
erns his  own  body  and  mind;  and  could  not  take  place, 
even  in  ordinary,  unhypnotic  suggestions,  if  the  center  of 
consciousness  had  not  relaxed,  to  a  certain  degree  at  least, 
its  hold  upon  its  own  body.  In  lethargic  hypnosis  this 
hold  is  loosened  until  it  amounts  to  a  practical  abandon- 
ment of  its  tenement. 

But  this  center  of  consciousness  can  not  be  annihilated. 
Driven  from  its  physical  habitation,  it  will,  under  a  more 
determined  effort  of  the  hypnotizer,  or  under  the  impetus 
of  the  self-hypnotizer's  will,  reappear,  functioning  in  more 


HYPNOTISM   AND   THE   HUMAN    SOUL.  197 

and  more  ethereal  bases,  or  "  Principles,"  until  it  finally 
retreats,  or  is  driven  to  a  point  where  the  will  of  the 
hypnotizer,  no  matter  how  powerful,  can  no  longer  control 
it.  This  may  be  called  the  Noetic  or  Manasic  point,  as 
distinguished  from  the  lower,  or  psychic  states.  There 
are  many  sub-stages  before  this  point  of  freedom  is 
reached,  in  which  this  Center,  using  bases  more  and  more 
spiritualized,  displays  apparently  more  and  more  "  super- 
natural" powers,  which  are  only  those  appropriate  to  these 
planes  of  materiality.  In  all  of  them  the  subject  is  influ- 
enced and  controlled  to  a  greater  or  lesser  degree  by  the 
will  of  the  hypnotizer,  and  all  opinions,  ideas  and  knowl- 
edge modified  and  measured  by  his.  This,  again,  is  the 
key  to  that  large  class  of  "phenomena  just  a  step  above 
those  of  which  we  have  spoken,  and  which  may  be  termed 
psychic,  as  those  below  them  were  termed  physical,  and 
those  above  Noetic  or  Manasic. 

It  is  in  this  psychic  realm  that  almost  all  of  the  so- 
called  "  spiritual"  manifestations  find  their  habitat,  when 
these  display  any  intelligence  at  all.  This  is  the  home  of 
"seers"  and  "clairvoyants,"  of  fakirs  and  fortune-tellers. 
For  he  who  can  by  self-hypnosis,  or  by  the  aid  of  another, 
establish  his  consciousness  upon  this  psychic  plane,  will 
find  himself  possessed  of  powers  which  are  just  as  natural 
here  as  ordinary  sight  and  hearing  are  on  the  physical. 
One  of  the  most  important  of  these  is  the  ability  to  sense 
thought  without  its  having  been  materialized  in  words. 
This  is  known  as  "mind  reading,"  and  all  those  who  reach 
this  plane  can  do  this  to  a  greater  or  lesser  degree.  Di- 
rect perception,  without  the  intervention  at  least  of  the 
physical  senses,  appears  upon  the  higher  of  these  psychic 
or  somnambulic  planes,  as  is  shown  in  cases  where  hyp- 


198  A   STUDY    OF    THE   SOUL. 

notized  subjects  have  correctly  diagnosed  and  located 
physical  ailments,  unsuspected  before  their  pointing  them 
out,  and  verified  by  subsequent  post-mortem  examinations. 
These  diagnoses,  however,  are  strictly  limited  upon  this 
psychic  plane  to  self-diagnosis,  or  at  least  have  little  or  no 
value  if  they  are  attempted  to  be  made  upon  another 
person.  Wonderful  as  many  of  the  feats  done  by 
psychics  are,  they  still  fall  under  the  classification  of  mind- 
reading,  for  any  information  which  they  give  must,  to  be 
accurate,  already  exist  in  the  mind  of  some  one  present. 
Thus  one  of  the  most  noted,  the  celebrated  Alexis,  failed 
completely  to  read  an  unopened  letter,  the  contents  of 
which  were  unknown  to  his  interlocutor,  although  he  cor- 
rectly described  the  personal  appearance  and  surround- 
ings of  the  sender,  which  were  known.  Had  the  contents 
been  subjected  to  even  a  single  reading,  Alexis  would  no 
doubt  have  read  the  letter  correctly,  although  his  interloc- 
utor could  not  have  repeated  it  from  memory,  which 
shows  how  complete  a  picture  of  all  the  acts  and  thoughts 
of  our  life  is  recorded  upon  the  physical  tablets  of  the 
brain — an  open  book  to  whomever  has  the  power  to  read. 
It  also  indicates  how  marvelously  mental  powers  are 
quickened  when  the  mind  no  longer  functions  through  its 
lowest  or  molecular  vehicle. 

But  far  above  all  these  psychic  states  lies  the  domain  of 
true  Mesmerism,  with  a  class  of  phenomena  peculiarly  its 
own,  and  which  are  but  very  seldom  brought  to  view  by 
the  ordinary  peripatetic,  or  even  the  "  scientific,"  hypno- 
tizer.  Indeed,  it  is  this  plane  which  the  hypnotizer  seeks 
to  avoid,  because,  as  he  complains,  his  subject  "gets  be- 
yond his  control."  Yet  it  is  this  very  point  which  divides 
White  from  Black  Magic;  and  all  who  stop  short  of  it 


HYPNOTISM   AND    THE   HUMAN    SOUL.  199 

through  ignorance  or  fear  may  know  the  class  to  which 
they  belong.  The  very  vibrations  of  the  hypnotic  state 
pertain  to  a  lower  plane  of  matter.  They  are  Molecular, 
and  can  be  produced  by  attuning  the  consciousness  to 
molecular  vibration,  such  as  gazing  at  bright  objects,  etc., 
as  pointed  out  above.  The  Mesmeric,  Noetic,  or  Manasic 
vibrations  are  Atomic,  and  proceed  from  a  much  higher 
plane,  and  in  an  exactly  opposite  direction.  The  vibra- 
tions in  hypnotism  pass  from  without  within ;  those  of 
Mesmerism  from  within  without,  in  harmony  with  the  law 
of  evolution.  The  one  is  on  the  plane  of  Kama,  or  selfish 
desire,  and  is  destructive  in  its  nature;  the  other  on  that 
of  Manas,  unselfishness,  and  is  creative,  life-giving,  Cosmic 
Magnetism.  As  pointed  out  by  Wm.  Q.  Judge,*  "the 
process  going  on  in  hypnotism  is  the  contraction  of  the 
cells  of  the  body  and  the  brain  from  the  periphery  to  the 
center.  This  is  actually  a  phenemenon  of  death,  and  is  , 
the  opposite  of  the  mesmeric  effect.  Magnetism  by 
human  influence  starts  from  within  and  proceeds  to  the 
outer  surface,  thus  exhibiting  a  phenomenon  of  life  the 
very  opposite  of  hypnotism."  If  we  remember  that  the 
occult  definition  of  an  atom  is  the  seventh  or  conscious 
principle  of  a  molecule,  we  can  see  that  the  play  of  the 
one  is  on  the  plane  of  blind,  the  other  of  intelligent,  force, 
respectively.  This  is  why  the  action  of  Mesmerism  is 
curative  and  helpful  in  its  nature.  It  is  acting  in  har- 
mony with  nature's  processes;  it  is  the  evolution  from 
within  without,  under  which  law  the  whole  Universe 
exists. 

The    phenomena    of    Mesmerism,    or,   more    properly, 

^Hypnotism  and  Theosophy. 


200  A   STUDY   OF    THE   SOUL. 

Magnetism,  are  of  a  nature  we  might  anticipate  from  the 
close  union  of  the  soul  with  the  source  of  all  its  powers, 
the  Higher  Ego.  They  are  prophetic,  intuitional,  uni- 
versal. As  on  the  higher  planes  of  the  psychic  states, 
the  soul  seems  to  contact  and  sense  material  things  with- 
out the  intervention  of  the  physical  senses,  so  upon  this  it 
arrives  directly  at  intellectual  truths,  without  the  aids  of 
reasoning  or  ratiocinative  processes.  Prophecies  of  the 
death  of  their  body,  as  well  as  future  events  on  the  mate-' 
rial  plane,  are  common  to  somnambulists  who  have 
reached  this  condition,  although  these  are  of  the  very  low- 
est of  mesmeric  powers.  Prophetic  dreams  fall  under  this 
head,  as  they  are  simply  the  Higher  Ego  functioning 
upon  its  own  proper  plane,  and  a  glimpse  of  whose  knowl- 
edge has  been  impressed  upon  the  brain  cells  of  the  per- 
sonality. Indeed,  one  great  and  deep  distinction  be- 
tween the  hypnotic  and  mesmeric  states  is  that  the 
former  requires  that  the  Ego  should  be  made  unconscious 
on  the  material  plane  before  its  phenomena  can  fully  and 
freely  issue,  while  mesmeric  effects  can  be  produced  quite 
independently  of  the  unconsciousness  and  destruction  of 
the  Will  by  any  of  the  hypnotic  adjuncts.  The  mesmeric 
phenomena  proceed  from  the  higher,  inner  planes,  and 
can  and  do  cause  an  influx  of  life,  strength,  and  vigor  into 
the  physical  system  of  the  mesmerized  subject  while  he  is 
in  the  full  possession  of  all  his  ordinary  mental  powers, 
and  quite  unconscious  that  any  such  process  is  taking 
place.  Indeed,  this  unconsciousness  is  often  mutual; 
neither  the  giver  nor  receiver  being  aware  of  what  is  tak- 
ing place,  or,  in  the  case  of  Mental  and  Christian  Science, 
not  knowing  how  or  why  they  cure  disease  when  this  fol- 
lows upon  their  "  treatments."  It  is  simply  the  transfer 


HYPNOTISM   AND    THE   HUMAN    SOUL.  2OI 

of  their  own  vital,  electric,  atomic  magnetism,  taking  place 
under  the  passive  aspect  of  the  will,  or  Desire.  Its  prin- 
cipal agent  is  the  eye,  usually  assisted  by  "  passes,"  in 
contradistinction  to  the  crystal  gazing,  or  other  physical 
methods,  of  hypnotism.  The  actual  modus  operandi  of 
the  two  processes  necessary  in  the  production  of  Mes- 
merism and  hypnotism  have  been  nicely  distinguished 
by  Madame  Blavatsky.  She  writes:* 

"When  the  first  method  (Braid's)  is  used,  no  electro-psychic,  or 
even  electro -physical  currents  are  at  work,  but  simply  the  mechan- 
ical, molecular  vibrations  of  the  metal  or  crystal  gazed  at  by  the 
subject.  It  is  the  eye — the  most  occult  organ  of  all  on  the  superficies 
of  our  body — which,  by  serving  as  a  medium  between  that  bit  of  metal 
or  crystal  and  the  brain,  attunes  the  molecular  vibrations  of  the 
nervous  centers  of  the  latter  into  unison  (i.  e.,  equality  in  the  num- 
ber of  their  respective  oscillations)  with  the  vibrations  of  the  bright 
object  held.  And  it  is  this  unison  which  produces  the  hypnotic  state. 
But,  in  the  second  case,  the  right  name  for  hypnotism  would  certainly 
be  'animal  magnetism,'  or  that  so  much  derided  term,  Mesmerism. 
For,  in  the  hypnotization  by  preliminary  passes,  it  is  the  human  will 
— whether  conscious  or  otherwise — of  the  operator  himself  that  acts 
upon  the  nervous  system  of  the  patient.  And  it  is  again  through  the 
vibrations — only  atomic,  not  molecular — produced  by  that  act  of  en- 
ergy called  WILIy  in  the  ether  of  space  (therefore  on  quite  a  different 
plane)  that  the  super-hypnotic  (i.  e.,  'suggestion,'  etc.,)  is  induced. 
For  those  which  we  call  will-vibrations  and  their  aura  are  abso- 
lutely distinct  from  the  vibrations  produced  by  the  simple  mechani- 
cal molecular  motion,  the  two  acting  on  separate  degrees  of  the 
cosmo-terrestrial  planes." 

These  statements,  again,  will  be  derided  by  so-called 
"  science."  With  them  "  suggestion" — by  which  is  meant, 
according  to  Dr.  Bjornstrom,f  "  every  operation  which  in 

*Lucifer,  Vol.  VII,  No.  40.  fHypnotism,  p.  41. 


202  A   STUDY    OF   THE   SOUL. 

a  living  being  causes  some  involuntary  effect,  the  impulse 
to  which  passes  through  the  intellect" — covers  the  whole 
of  this  terra  incognita.  How  the  idea  that  she  is  hypno- 
tized and  unable  to  move  is  "  impulsed"  through  the  in- 
tellect of  a  hen,  from  the  point  of  whose  bill  a  chalk  line 
is  drawn  upon  the  ground  in  front  of  her,  we  leave  for 
some  learned  "Psychical  Research  Society"  to  investigate; 
the  subject  may  be  upon  its  intellectual  level.  In  fact, 
"  suggestion,"  as  accounting  for  hypnotism  upon  the 
theory  of  ideas  set  up  in  the  subject,  entirely  breaks  down 
before  the  facts  of  the  hypnosis  of  animals.  Let  a  man 
stand  in  front  of  a  hungry  lion  and  "  suggest"  to  him  that 
he  is  not  hungry,  and  he  will  presently  find  himself  within 
the  stomach  of  the  beast;  while,  if  he  can  catch  the  eye, 
and  has  the  courage  and  knowledge  to  attune  its  vibra- 
tions to  his  own,  he  need  not  fear  the  most  ferocious  den- 
izen of  the  forest.  This  is  the  secret  of  the  Rareys  and 
lion-tamers,  which  they  unconsciously  exercise;  and, 
indeed,  it  is  the  secret  of  that  "  dominion  over  every  beast 
of  the  earth"  which  has  enabled  man  to  make  them  his 
unwilling  subjects  from  the  day  that  he  first  appreciated 
the  strength  of  his  human  will. 

From  all  of  the  preceding,  it  will  be  gathered  that 
Theosophists  look  with  no  friendly  eye  upon  the  practice 
of  hypnotism,  except  under  the  most  strict  legal  and 
moral  supervision.  The  dangers  are  many,  and  self? 
evident.  If  the  very  walls  and  stones  preserve  a  record 
of  shadows  cast  across  them,  which  even  science  admits, 
how  much  more  lasting  the  impression  produced  upon  the 
sensitive  brain  structure  by  the  deliberate  and  forcible 
impress  of  the  will  of  another.  It  is  a  matter  of  grave 
'doubt  whether  the  hypnotized,  after  a  thorough  hypnosis, 


HYPNOTISM   AND    THE   HUMAN   SOUL.  203 

ever  regain  perfectly  free  will  and  entirely  normal  con- 
sciousness. Certain  well-verified  phenomena  would  indi- 
cate the  reverse.  For  example :  It  is  related  of  a  well 
known  hypnotizer — then  classed  as  a  "  miracle"  worker,  or 
magnetic  healer — that  he  once  removed  a  neuralgia,  of 
long  standing,  from  the  arm  of  a  certain  sufferer,  who 
thereupon  returned  to  his  own  country.  After  some  years 
of  perfect  freedom,  the  pain  suddenly  returned  one  day, 
with  all  its  former  intensity.  Inquiry  revealed  the  start- 
ling fact  that  at  the  very  hour  in  which  it  did  so  the  mag- 
netizer  had  died. 

Quite  as  suggestive  is  the  case,  vouched  for  by  several 
hypnotizers,  where  the  sleeping  subject  was  ordered  to  do 
a  certain  act  at  some  designated  interval  after  he  was 
awakened.  The  hypnosis  was  then  removed,  and  the 
subject  to  all  appearances  widely  awake; — quite  free  to 
think  and  act  as  he  pleased.  Yet,  when  the  time  arrived 
at  which  he  was  commanded  to  do  it,  he  obeyed  as  im- 
plicitly as  though  he  were  yet  completely  hypnotized. 
But,  though  acting  with  apparently  full  consciousness  and 
knowledge  of  what  he  did,  he  denied  immediately  after- 
ward that  he  had  performed  any  such  action  at  all,  and 
could  not  be  convinced  to  the  contrary.  This  experi- 
ment, verified  by  many  similar  ones,  showed  plainly  that, 
though  apparantly  awake,  as  far  as  human  observation 
could  detect,  the  subject  was  not  so  fully  and  completely, 
and  that  a  portion  of  his  normal  consciousness  was  en- 
tirely suppressed  and  under  the  subjugation  of  the  will  of 
another. 

From  a  criminal  standpoint,  also,  these  suggestions 
obeyed  after  long  intervals  of  apparently  complete  self- 
control  have  a  most  important  bearing.  Suggestions  have 


204  A   STUDY    OF   THE   SOUL. 

been  carried  out  down  to  the  most  minute,  trifling  detail 
after  even  a  year  had  elapsed  since  the  hypnosis.  It  is 
easy  to  see  how  a  hypnotizer  could  cause  any  crime  which 
avarice  or  revenge  might  dictate  to  be  accomplished  with- 
out its  being  possible  to  connect  him  legally  with  that  for 
which  he  is  morally  responsible. 

Again,  a  suggestion  often,  if  not  always,  acts  like  a 
physical  stimulus  in  a  dream,  as  when  a  drop  of  water  on 
the  face  has  caused  the  dramatization  of  a  whole  sequence 
of  thunder-storm,  shipwreck,  etc.,  by  the  dreamer.  Simi- 
larly, a  seemingly  simple  suggestion  may  set  up  a  train  of 
desires,  utterly  out  of  proportion  to  the  primary  impulse, 
as  a  city  may  be  destroyed  by  the  accidental  lighting  of 
a  match.  Thus,  in  one  instance*  it  was  suggested  to  the 
subject  that  she  desired  some  cherries.  Instead  of  pass- 
ing off  when  awakened  this  desire  increased  in  intensity, 
and  was  only  satisfied  by  the  purchase  of  some  the  next 
day. 

It  is  now,  also,  after  a  stormy  denial  on  the  part  of 
science,  universally  admitted  that  hypnotism  can  be  pro- 
duced from  a  distance,  without  the  subject  knowing  it, 
against  his  will,  and  even  during  sleep.  In  all  these  in- 
stances so  far  recorded  there  has  been  a  magnetic  rapport 
established  by  a  submission  to  hypnosis  before  these  dis- 
puted phenomena  could  be  accomplished,  which  only  adds 
strength  to  the  view  that  the  hypnotized  is  never  free 
from  the  will  of  the  hypnotizer  again,  the  rapport  simply 
meaning  in  these  cases  a  state  of  partial  hypnosis.  It 
also  emphasizes  the  fact  that  one  ought  to  submit  to  any 
torture  rather  than  be  hypnotized,  and  that  he  had  far 
better  "experiment"  with  the  most  deadly  physical 

*Bjornstrom,  loc.  cit. 


HYPNOTISM    AND    THE    HUMAN    SOUL.  2O5 

poisons  than  with  this  equally  deadly  moral  one.  There 
is  no  apparent  reason  why  all  of  these  terrible  powers  for 
evil  could  not  be  exercised  upon  any  one  by  a  Black  Ma- 
gician, sufficiently  versed  in  his  art.  And  there  is  no 
question  that  a  pursuit  of  the  study  together  with  a  prac- 
tice of  hypnotism  will  ultimately  end  in  Black  magic  for 
all  its  lay  practitioners.  The  distinction  between  Black 
and  White  Magic  is  in  MOTIVE  only;  the  forces  used 
are  the  same.  There  must  be  a  perfect  and  complete 
altruism,  an  utter  abandonment  of  self,  before  we  can  rise 
to  the  planes  of  Mesmerism  and  White  magic.  The 
sweetest,  purest,  most  ethereal  "  Christian  Scientist"  who 
accepts  a  fee  for  her  "  denial"  that  her  patient  is  ill  or 
her  affirmation  that  he  is  well,  has  taken  the  first  step  on 
the  declivity  which  will  sooner  or  later  lead  to  the  awful 
precipices  of  the  Black  Magician,  from  which  there  is  no 
escape ;  for  there  is  the  element  of  self,  no  matter  how 
seemingly  justifiable,  which  will  prove  the  germ  that  will 
ultimately  poison  her  whole  being.  The  operations  of 
most  "  healers"  have  this  in  common  with  White  Magic 
and  Mesmerism,  that  their  "  suggestions"  are  made  with 
the  subject  in  full  possession  of  all  his  mental  faculties 
and  consciousness,  and  are  not  accompanied  with  that 
soul-tainting,  will-destroying,  obsessing  vampirism  of  the 
hypnotic  "sleep."  It  is  true  that  the  latter  may  be  ap- 
parently justified  in  order  to  overcome  a  peculiarly  stub- 
born will  or  vicious  habit,  but  where  it  is  resorted  to,  the 
motive  ought  to  be  as  pure  as  the  snow  upon  the  hights 
of  the  Himalayas*. 

This  brings  us  to  the  consideration  of  the  question  as 
to  the  extent  to  which  hypnotism  may  be  justifiably  prac- 
ticed. Its  field  would  seem  to  be  limited  to  attempts  to 


206  A   STUDY   OF   THE   SOUL. 

cure  disease,  and  to  overcome  bad  habits,  and,  in  selecting 
cases,  the  nicest  discrimination,  guided  by  considerations 
pointed  out,  must  be  used.  Madame  Blavatsky,*  whose 
knowledge  of  occult  subjects  far  exceeded  that  of  any  liv- 
ing writer,  defines  its  legitimate  uses  and  points  out  some 
of  its  abuses  thus :  . 

"Hypnotic  suggestion  may  cure  forever,  and  it  may  not.  If 
Karmic,  diseases  will  only  be  postponed,  and  return  in  some  other 
form,  not  necessarily  of  disease,  but  as  a  punitive  evil  of  another  sort. 
It  is  always  right  to  try  and  alleviate  suffering  whenever  we  can,  and 
to  do  our  best  for  it.  Thought  is  more  powerful  than  speech  in  cases 
of  a  real  subjugation  of  the  will  of  the  patient  to  that  of  his  operator. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  unless  the  suggestion  made  is  for  the  good 
only  of  the  subject,  and  entirely  free  from  any  selfish  motive,  a  sug- 
gestion by  thought  is  an  action  of  Black  Magic  still  more  pregnant 
with  evil  consequences  than  a  spoken  suggestion.  It  is  always  wrong 
and  unlawful  to  deprive  a  man  of  his  free  will,  unless  for  his  own  or 
society's  good,  and  even  the  former  has  to  be  done  with  great  dis- 
crimination. Occultism  regards  all  such  promiscuous  attempts  as 
Black  Magic  and  sorcery,  whether  conscious  or  otherwise.  As  to 
whether  it  is  wise  to  hypnotize  a  patient  out  of  a  vicious  habit,  such 
as  drinking  or  lying,  it  is  an  act  of  charity  and  kindness,  and  this  is 
next  to  wisdom.  For,  although  the  dropping  of  his  vicious  habits 
will  add  nothing  to  his  good  Karma  (which  it  would  had  his  efforts 
to  reform  been  personal,  of  his  own  free  will,  and  necesitating  a 
great  mental  and  physical  struggle),  still  a  successful  'suggestion' 
prevents  him  from  generating  more  bad  Karma,  and  adding  con- 
stantly to  the  previous  record  of  his  transgressing. ' ' 

In  regard  to  the  modus  operandi  of  "  faith"  healing,  she 
further  says: 

"Imagination  is  a  potent  help  in  every  event  of  our  lives.  Imag- 
ination acts  on  faith,  and  both  are  the  draughtsmen  who  prepare  the 

*Lucifer,  loc.  tit. 


HYPNOTISM   AND   THE    HUMAN    SOUL.  2O7 

sketches  for  will  to  engrave,  more  or  less  deeply,  on  the  rocks  of  ob- 
stacles and  opposition  with  which  the  path  of  life  is  strewn.  Says 
Paracelsus,  '  Faith  must  confirm  the  imagination,  for  faith  establishes 
the  will.  Determined  will  is  the  beginning  of  all  magical  operations. 
It  is  because  men  do  not  perfectly  imagine  and  believe  the  result 
that  the  arts  (of  magic)  are  uncertain  while  they  might  be  pefectly 
certain.'  This  is  all  the  secret.  Half,  if  not  two-thirds,  of  all  our 
ailings  and  diseases  are  the  fruit  of  our  imagination  and  fears. 
Destroy  the  latter  and  give  another  bent  to  the  former,  and  nature 
will  do  the  rest.  There  is  nothing  injurious  or  sinful  in  the  methods, 
per  se.  They  turn  to  harm  only  when  belief  in  his  power  becomes 
too  arrogant  and  marked  in  the  faith  healer,  and  when  he  thinks 
he  can  will  away  such  diseases  as  need,  if  they  are  to  be  removed 
at  all,  the  immediate  help  of  expert  surgeons  and  physicians." 

But,  perhaps,  the  chief  reason  for  abstaining  from  the 
practice  of  hypnotism,  except  in  extreme  cases,  and  under 
the  restrictions  pointed  out,  is  our  blind  ignorance  of  the 
finer  forces  of  nature  which  we  are  evoking.  Thus,  it 
happened  to  the  writer  to  find  that  a  subject,  whom  he 
had  hypnotized  merely  as  a  pleasant  evening's  entertain- 
ment, appeared  to  become  afterward  a  kind  of  reflector  of 
his  (the  writer's)  mental  states  and  ideas.  Let  the 
writer  be  thinking  of  a  subject,  and  his  patient  would  al- 
lude to  it;  let  him  mentally  hum  a  song,  and  he  would  be 
startled  by  hearing  his  unconscious  serf  immediately  vo- 
calizing it,  etc.,  and  all  this  with  no  desire  or  thought  on 
the  writer's  part  that  this  should  follow. 

A  paragraph  which  went  the  rounds  of  .the  press  some 
time  since  is  very  instructive  in  this  connection.  It  is  to 
the  effect  that  a  certain  Spaniard,  named  Perez,  arriving 
at  Mier,  Mexico,  was  immediately  made  the  recipient  of 
gifts  of  a  varied  character  from  people  to  whom  he  was  a 
perfect  stranger.  Some  of  these  were  silly,  as  when  the 


208  A   STUDY   OF   THE   SOUL. 

waiter  removed  all  the  bottles  of  wine  from  the  other 
guests,  and  transferred  them  to  the  tables  of  Perez.  Be-* 
ing  threatened  with  violence,  and  called  upon  to  explain, 
Perez  admitted  that  he  was  a  trained  and  marvelously 
proficient  hypnotizer,  which  had  become  such  a  passion 
that  he  could  not  resist  practicing  his  gift  upon  those 
about  him.  But  it  is  evident  from  the  account  given  that 
Perez  often  hypnotized  people  without  himself  being 
aware  of  it.  And  here  we  have  a  key  to  the  states  of 
consciousness  portrayed  in  "  Mr.  Jekyll  and  Mr.  Hyde," 
as  also  to  that  delineated  by  one  who,  we  have  many  rea- 
sons for  believing,  founded  his  occult  stories  upon  the 
basis  of  real  occult  knowledge,  the  result  of  a  partial  ini- 
tiation into  the  mysteries  of  the  East.  This  is  the  char- 
acter of  Margrave  in  "  A  Strange  Story,"  by  Bulwer 
Lytton.  It  appears  that  the  author  makes  Margrave  him- 
self not  aware  of  the  evils  which  his  "  double"  plotted  and 
carried  into  execution.  At  any  rate,  we  have  the  warn- 
ing that,  before  one  seeks  to  transfer  his  consciousness  to 
higher  and  inner  planes  of  being,  he  should  first  become 
"pure  in  heart,"  as  it  is  only  such  that  truly  "see  their 
god."  For  the  farther  one  retreats  within  the  unfathom- 
able depths  of  his  being,  the  stronger  and  more  powerful 
for  good  or  evil  do  the  forces  which  he  employs  become; 
and  this  from,  a  selfish,  personal  point  of  view  alone, 
saying  nothing  of  the  irremediable  woe  he  may  work 
through  employing  ignorantly  such  a  potent  factor  as  the 
human  will  becomes  in  hypnotism. 

From  all  the  foregoing  it  will  be  apparent  how  com- 
pletely the  facts  of  hypnotism  sustain  the  hypothesis  that 
the  human  soul  is  an  unit  center  of  consciousness,  using 
many  vehicles.  Of  these  the  physical  sense  organs  are 


HYPNOTISM   AND    THE    HUMAN    SOUL.  209 

only  required  to  enable  it  to  come  into  conscious  relations 
with  molecular  planes  of  being.  It  also  brings  out,  with 
startling  distinctness,  the  fact  that  these  sense  organs  limit 
the  soul's  conscious  area,  instead  of  widening  it,  thus  com- 
pletely negativing  the  materialistic  hypothesis  of  the  con- 
scious functions  of  the  soul  being  the  result  of  molecular 
or  chemical  activities  in  the  body.  Equally  important  is 
the  light  it  throws  upon  the  composite  nature  of  man, 
and  the  relation  sustained  to  his  center  of  consciousness 
by  the  various  "  souls' "  vehicles  or  Principles  through 
which  that  center  may  manifest.  But,  of  course,  the 
crowning  usefulness  of  a  study  of  hypnotic  consciousness 
is  that  in  demonstrating  the  independence  of  the  human 
soul  of  its  physical  organs,  it  establishes  as  a  necessary 
corollary  the  fact  of  its  Reincarnation. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

OBJECTIONS  TO  REINCARNATION. 


chief  objection  to  reincarnation  is  that  we  do  not 
remember  our  past  lives,  as  we  ought  to  do  if  our 
"  I  am  I"  is  a  permanent  center  of  consciousness,  and 
merely  passes  from  body  to  body  upon  the  death  of  these. 
This  at  first  sight  seems  a  valid  objection,  for  memory 
is  a  necessary  link  in  constituting  true  self-consciousness. 
One  chief  argument  advanced  in  proof  of  the  existence  of 
a  soul  is  that  there  is  a  central  something  which  binds 
states  of  consciousness  into  a  continuous  and  connected 
unity,  and  without  which  unifying  center  they  would  of 
necessity  remain  simply  states  of  consciousness;  those 
present  having  no  memory  of  nor  hold  upon  those  past, 
nor  anticipation  of  those  in  the  future.  Therefore,  we 
ought  to  remember  our  past  if  that  past  has  been  really 
continuous,  and  the  objection  is  fatal  unless  the  loss  of 
the  memory  of  our  various  personalities  is  fully  explained. 
This  explanation  is  found  in  the  compound  nature  of 
man.  We  have  seen  that  the  Higher  Ego  is  only 
incarnated  in  a  human-animal  body  for  the  purpose  of 
descending  to  this  plane  of  molecular  consciousness;  that 
there  are  really  three  evolutionary  processes  going  on 
simultaneously  in  man  —  a  physical,  an  intellectual  or  ma- 
nasic,  and  a  spiritual  or  monadic.  With  this  third 
process  the  divine  Monad  is  alone  concerned.  The  sec- 
ond, or  intellectual  evolution,  is  that  of  the  Higher  Ego. 
The  third  appertains  to  the  Lower  Quaternary.  While 
in  man  these  three  distinct  streams  of  evolution  are  inex- 


OBJECTIONS    TO    REINCARNATION.  211 

tricably  interblended,  because  to  a  greater  or  lesser  de- 
gree each  process  is  a  factor  in  both  the  others,  still  they 
are  distinct  enough  without  being  separate  to  fully  ac- 
count for  non-remembrance  of  the  one  upon  the  plane  of 
the  other.  Memory  has  been  variously  divided  and 
classfied  by  psychologists,  which  divisions  do  not  require 
analysis  here.  The  one  essential  in  any  act  of  memory 
is  the  recording  of  a  conscious  experience.  This  record 
will  and  must  differ  with  each  plane  of  consciousness. 
The  manasic  plane  being  that  of  true  self-consciousness, 
it  takes  here  the  self-conscious  form;  upon  the  physical, 
it  records  itself  in  other  changes,  which  are  physical  rather 
than  mental.  None  the  less,  however,  are  these  changes 
the  records  of  memory  because  below  the  self-conscious 
plane.  The  physical  form  and  psychic  characteristics, 
which  represent  the  infinite  variations  in  the  entities  upon 
the  material  plane  of  the  Universe,  constitute  the  memory 
of  the  conscious  experiences  of  each  entity  recorded  in 
these  physical  modifications.  In  the  physical  body  of 
man  is  thus  recorded  each  conscious  experience  under- 
gone since  he  occupied  that  mass  of  jelly-like  substance 
which  we  have  reason  to  suspect  was  his  first  body,  al- 
though the  great  mass  of  these  experiences  have  of 
necessity  been  below  the  self-conscious  plane. 

Here,  then,  lies  the  secret  of  our  not  remembering  our 
past  lives.  They  have  been  and  are  entirely  too  much 
upon  the  physical  plane  to  find  other  record  than  in  those 
physical  and  lower  psychic  modifications  of  form  and 
passional  characteristics  which  lie  too  far  below  it  to 
have  any  record  upon  the  plane  of  manasic  or  true  self- 
consciousness.  The  most  of  our  conscious  experiences 
are  almost  purely  animal  and  while  they  are  temporarily 


212  A   STUDY   OF   THE   SOUL. 

recorded  as  separate  experiences  upon  the  brain  cells  of 
each  body,  this  record  is  of  necessity  destroyed  as  a  self- 
conscious  register  at  death,  and  is  only  preserved  upon 
the  corresponding  register  of  its  own  plane — that  of  evo- 
lutionary modification.  The  record  is  destroyed  as  a  self- 
conscious  register  for  the  reason  that  the  personality  has 
no  true  self-consciousness.  The  feeling  of  "  I  am  I"  of 
our  ordinary  conscious  experiences  is  reflected  there  by 
the  Higher  Ego,  as  was  explained  in  the  chapter  dealing 
with  that  portion  of  the  subject,  and  passes  away  entirely 
either  at  or  briefly  following  death.  All  those  ambitions, 
"  successes,"  and  even  intellectual  achievements,  no  matter 
how  colossal  they  appear,  if  only  intellectual,  and  not  spir- 
itualized, fall  within  the  fatal  line  of  non-permanency. 
The  life  of  a  Napoleon,  or  of  a  Bacon,  represents  only  the 
lower  animal  faculties — intensely  intellectualized,  to  be 
sure,  but  having  no  greater  claim  to  the  spiritual  remem- 
brance of  the  Higher  Ego  than  the  humblest  events  in 
the  life  of  a  clodhopper.  One  must  live  upon  the  plane 
of  the  Higher  Manas  to  have  a  truly  self-conscious  mem- 
ory; otherwise,  he  can  and  ought  to  expect  the  oblitera- 
tion of  his  personal  memory  after  devachanic  existence 
ceases  and  his  next  reincarnation  occurs.  And  just  in 
proportion  as  one  does  live  in  his  higher  Principles  will 
each  personality  live  in  the  memory  of  the  Higher  Ego; 
and,  also,  in  proportion  to  his  ability  to  reach  this  divine 
plane  of  truly  continuous  self-consciousness  while  in  the 
body  will  he  remember  his  past  lives. 

Those  conscious  experiences  which  represent  the  bor- 
derland, as  it  were,  between  the  higher  and  lower  Manas, 
or  between  the  Individuality  and  Personality,  are  carried 
forward  as  devachanic  memories;  but,  being  semi-spirit- 


OBJECTIONS   TO    REINCARNATION.  213 

ual  only,  they  are  lost  as  self-conscious  experiences  upon 
reincarnation.  They  have  all  the  permanence  to  which 
their  mixed  nature  entitles  them  in  the  illusory  but  very 
happy  recalling  of  them  while  in  this  subjective  state. 
For  the  chief  happiness  of  this  condition  lies  in  the  power 
of  the  soul  to  take  an  earth  memory  or  desire  and  make 
it  the  text,  so  to  speak,  upon  which  a  series  of  thought 
pictures  are  constructed  and  which  carry  the  unrealized 
desire  or  interrupted  happiness  to  its  highest  ideal  termi- 
nation. The  whole  of  Devachan  is  thus  largely  composed 
of  these  dramatized  realizations  of  desires  arising  out  of 
conscious  experiences  while  in  the  body.  It  is  only  nec- 
essary that  they  should  rise  above  the  plane  of  gross  ani- 
mality  for  them  to  become  the  objects  of  this  devachanic 
dramatizatipn  and  realization. 

That  man's  conscious  experiences  upon  earth  are  so 
largely  recorded  upon  the  physical  plane  and  in  these 
karmic  modifications  of  physical  heredity,  is  a  most  bene- 
ficient  provision  of  nature.  So  full  of  mistakes,  errors, 
sins,  and  crimes  is  the  past  of,  perhaps,  every  one  of  us, 
that  the  actual  memory  of  it  all  carried  forward  in  detail 
to  each  new  life  would  overwhelm  the  soul  with  despair 
at  the  very  outset.  Nor  is  it  essential  to  the  conviction 
of  our  having  lived  before  that  we  should  remember  each 
incident  in  our  past  lives,  or  even  that  we  have  lived  be- 
fore at  all.  Who  remembers  the  first  two  or  three  years 
of  his  infancy  ?  The  fact  that  we  were  the  same  individ- 
ual during  this  period  of  forgotten  existence  that  we  are 
now,  none  of  us  doubt,  yet  we  would  be  sorely  put  about 
if  we  were  required  to  furnish  proof  of  this  from  memory. 
And  even  after  this  portion,  how  much  do  we  remember 
of  our  life  history  if  we  attempt  to  recall  it  day  by  day,  in 


214  A   STUDY   OF    THE   SOUL. 

all  its  trifling  minutiae  ?  Of  the  three  score  years  and  ten 
of  human  existence  in  the  body,  few  can  accurately  recall 
the  events  of  as  many  days — nay,  hardly  of  as  many  min- 
utes. All,  except  prodigies  of  memory,  have  practically 
forgotten  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  of  every  thousand 
incidents  of  all  their  past.  And  yet  the  fact  does  not  dis- 
turb us  at  all.  We  know  that  we  are  the  result  of  this 
experience  we  have  come  through;  that  our  identity  is 
the  same  with  that  of  the  infant,  the  school  boy,  the 
youth,  the  over-confident  youn£  man,  the  earnest,  wiser 
one  of  middle  life,  the  tranquil,  saddened  one  of  old  age. 
Through  it  all  the  use  of  memory,  being  so  largely  physi- 
cal, has  been  to  link  results  together  rather  than  inci- 
dents ;  to  enable  us  to  benefit  by  the  past  rather  than  to 
be  able  to  remember  each  particular  portion  of  it. 

This  is  the  surest  memory — the  knowledge  that  the 
crystallized  results  of  what  we  have  experienced  are  fully 
and  completely  expressed  in  what  we  are  now.  Are  we 
prone  to  anger,  and  find  it  difficult  to  control  fits  of  pas- 
sion ?  Here  is  the  memory  of  many  a  deed  of  violence 
done  under  the  dominance  of  our  lower  nature  long  ago. 
Do  we  turn  with  horror  away  from  injustice  or  extortion  ? 
Be  assured  we  are  remembering  the  time  when  we  our- 
selves were  the  sufferers  from  similar  unjust  acts.  And 
so  on,  through  all  the  most  delicate  intricacies  of  our  be- 
ing. We  are  the  creation  of  our  past;  and  the  nature  we 
have  evolved  is  its  memory.  If  we  have  gathered  wis- 
dom from  the  experiences  of  our  lives,  it  is  enough;  in 
just  what  the  experience  consisted  is  of  little  moment. 
We  may  feel  sure  that  under  the  guidance  of  the  divine 
law  of  Karma  no  experience  has  touched  or  ever  can 
touch  us  which  we  have  not  deserved  in  some  capacity, 


OBJECTIONS   TO    REINCARNATION.  215 

either  in  our  individual,  our  family,  our  racial,  or  our  na- 
tional relations  with  our  fellow-men. 

Even  before  death,  if  we  live  to  be  old,  nature  antici- 
pates the  process  by  which  she  prepares  us  for  new  expe- 
riences, and  we  become  again  as  little  children.  Our  life 
work  is  done.  All  the  knowledge  which  we  can  assimi- 
late in  this  incarnation  has  been  acquired,  and  so  we  re- 
turn to  the  devachanic  condition  of  childhood;  and  the 
mystery  of  involution,  or  the  assimilating  of  the  net  re- 
sults of  experience,  begins  because  the  time  for  it  has 
come  and  death  has  temporarily  passed  us  by. 

Another  objection  made  from  a  purely  emotional  stand- 
point is  that  reincarnation  separates  us  forever  from  those 
we  have  loved  in  this  life.  Nothing  could  be  farther  from 
the  truth  than  this,  for  exactly  the  opposite  occurs.  Re- 
incarnation, in  common  with  every  other  phenomenon  in 
nature,  proceeds  under  the  law  of  karma,  or  cause  and 
effect,  and  we  ourselves  set  up  the  causes  whose  effects 
are  our  rebirth  not  only  in  regard  to  time,  but  also  as  to 
those  with  whom  we  will  find  ourselves  associated.  These 
causes  are  largely,  if  not  wholly,  mental,  and  originate  in 
the  acts,  emotions,  and  thoughts  of  our  daily  life.  They, 
therefore,  relate  us  karmically  to  those  with  whom  we  are 
thus  daily  associated,  who  are  the  subjects  or  objects  of 
such  thoughts  or  acts,  and  in  exact  proportion  to  the  in- 
tensity of  our  feeling  toward  each  of  these,  be  that  feeling 
either  of  love  or  of  hatred.  We  can  not  set  up  causes 
which  will  bind  our  future  life  to  those  whom  we  have 
never  met,  nor  have  even  known  of  mentally.  This 
would  be  an  absurd  view  to  take  of  the  law.  We  are, 
therefore,  bound  to  those — and  to  those  only — with  whom 
we  are  most  closely  associated  in  either  the  bonds  of  love 


2l6  A    STUDY   OF   THE   SOUL. 

or  hatred,  for  attraction  and  repulsion  are  but  opposite 
poles  or  modes  of  motion  of  the  same  impersonal  force, 
and  are  of  equal  strength.  Therefore,  the  impersonal  law 
of  cause  and  effect  will  bring  together  those  bound  by 
bonds  of  hatred  as  surely  as  it  will  those  related  by  ties 
of  affection.  This  fact  fully  explains  the  otherwise  inex- 
plicable appearance  of  a  single  black  sheep  in  an  other- 
wise unblemished  family,  or  those  so-called  "  unnatural" 
hatreds  between  children  and  parents,  or  those  which  ap- 
pear in  any  of  the  closely  related  ties  of  consanguinity. 

The  attraction  thus  set  up  between  individuals  by  their 
associations  and  mental  Attitudes  towards  each  other  is  as 
potent — and  as  patent — as  that  which  binds  atoms  into 
the  stable  elements,  so  far  beneath  the  mental  plane.  It 
is  but  another  illustration  of  the  unity  of  law  upon  all  the 
planes  of  the  Cosmos.  So  powerful  is  it  that  it  can  both 
draw  souls  to  or  from  material  existence,  else  its  results 
would  of  necessity  fail  in  uniting  those  karmically  bound. 
We  see  its  action  in  taking  souls  from  the  earth  in  those 
common  cases  where  either  the  wife  or  husband  quickly 
follows  the  other  to  the  grave  without  apparent  physi- 
ological reason.  But  more  notable,  because  more  op- 
posed to  the  normal  course  of  nature,  are  the  numerous 
instances  where  a  mother's  death  has  been  followed  by  so 
plain  a  loosening  of  its  hold  upon  life  by  her  young  babe 
that  even  ignorant  observers  have  recognized  the  fact  that 
she  was  "  drawing"  it  after  her. 

Of  course,  such  cases  are  exceptions  because  out  of  the 
usual  course  of  nature ;  but  they  are  just  those  exceptions 
which  prove  the  rule.  For  in  the  normal  instances  those 
associated  would  be  likely  to  have  subjective  or  de- 
vachanic  lives  of  about  the  same  duration.  Therefore,  if 


HYPNOTISM   AND    THE   HUMAN    SOUL. 


in  a  group  of  karmically  associated  souls  one  were  drawn 
by  karma  and  the  closing  of  its  subjective  cycle  to  re- 
incarnate, the  center  of  attractive  force  thus  transferred  to 
the  material  plane  would  be  amply  powerful  to  draw  to  it 
others  whose  devachanic  cycles  were  also  closing;  and  the 
close  union,  as  in  marriage,  of  certain  of  these  might 
easily  set  up  a  center  of  attraction  sufficiently  powerful  to 
bring  to  a  close  the  Devachan  of  any  Ego  whose  karma 
demanded  its  association  with  such  Egos  thus  incarnated. 
Were  this  not  the  case  a  Devachan  extending  over  1,500 
years  would  eternally  separate,  as  far  as  material  associa- 
tions are  concerned,  an  Ego  from  one  whose  spiritual  na- 
ture entitled  it  to  but  1,200  years  in  the  same  state,  how- 
ever close  the  ties  of  affection  might  have  been  during 
life  on  earth. 

As  the  length  of  life  upon  the  earth  is  very  greatly 
modified  by  association  with  others,  so  is  Devachan  sub- 
ject to  similar  modifications.  Racial  or  national  karma 
may  subject  us  to  a  death  by  war,  pestilence,  or  famine 
which  would  not  have  been  necessitated  by  our  purely 
personal  karma,  and  the  sanitary  conditions  of  communi- 
ties, even,  shorten  or  lengthen  the  lives  of  the  units 
grouped  in  such  karmic  relations.  Especially  is  this  so  in 
large  cities.  San  Francisco,  for  instance,  has  a  certain 
percentage  of  deaths  due  entirely  to  corrupt  governments 
having  permitted  peculation  and  dishonest  work  in  its 
sewer  system.  Scores  of  lives  are  cut  short  yearly  as  a 
direct  karmic  result  of  this  community  karma.  On  the 
other  hand,  scores  and  hundreds  of  lives  are  lengthened 
by  wise  sanitary  measures  —  especially  in  times  of  pesti- 
lence or  epidemics. 

If  life   be  thus  subject  to  modification   on  the   material 


218  A   STUDY    OF   THE   SOUL. 

plane,  it  is  also  subject  to  the  same  in  Devachan,  under 
the  axiom  that  the  action  of  any  law  must  be  universal. 
It  is  at  least  plain  that  there  is  nothing  in  the  nature  of 
Devachan  to  preclude  the  after  association  of  individuals 
upon  earth;  but,  on  the  contrary,  that  such  associations 
are  certain  to  continue  so  long  as  there  is  any  attraction 
or  repulsion  between  incarnated  souls. 

This  is  an  infinitely  wiser  provision — attraction  and  re- 
pulsion— for  human  happiness  than  any  merely  physical 
ties  of  consanguinity.  It  ensures  association  so  long  as 
we  desire  it;  it  cuts  us  loose  when  we  have  become  indif- 
ferent to  any  personality — thus  grouping  souls  by.  their 
higher  natures  rather  than  upon  a  physical  basis.  Were 
the  physical  ties  paramount,  each  child  would  demand  an 
eternal  association  with  its  parents,  they  in  turn  with 
theirs,  and  so  on  back  to  some  antediluvian  ancestor,  for 
whom  the  whole  vast  throng,  except  his  immediate  prog- 
eny, would  feel  the  most  profound  indifference,  as  they 
also  would  for  each  other,  except  in  a  similar  exceedingly 
limited  relation.  But  soul  attraction  brings  to  each  Ego 
its,  own;  and  as  each  parent,  for  instance,  returns  to  in- 
carnation attracting  to  it  those  children  it  really  loved, 
these  in  turn,  after  paying  their  karmic  debt,  will  attract 
their  beloved,  and  so  the  links  of  human  affection  will  re- 
main forever  unbroken  until  indifference  or  development 
in  some  new  direction  severs  all  old  attractions. 

A  further  objection  to  reincarnation,  sometimes  urged, 
is  that  it  is  unjust  for  us  to  suffer  in  this  life  the  conse- 
quences of  acts  done  in  past  ones  which  we  have  forgot- 
ten. To  answer  this  it  is  only  necessary  to  point  out  the 
absurdity  of  supposing  that  the  mere  forgetting  of  any  act 
or  crime  absolves  one  from  its  consequences.  Under 


HYPNOTISM   AND   THE   HUMAN   SOUL.  219 

this  strange  ethical  view,  it  would  be  only  necessary  for  a 
murderer  to  forget  the  crime  he  had  committed  to  be  re- 
lieved from  all  moral  and  legal  responsibility.  Could  he 
not  succeed  in  this  himself  it  would  only  require  that  a 
hypnotizer  should  interpose,  and  the  criminal  thus  made 
unconscious  of  his  crime  could  be  dragged  off  the  very 
gallows  itself.  The  law  of  cause  and  effect  is  impersonal, 
and,  as  far  as  we  can  conceive  of  consciousness,  acts  un- 
consciously. Often  physical  diseases  are  the  result  of 
causes  set  in  action  during  the  unconsciousness  of  sleep, 
yet  the  law  inflicts  the  full  penalty  nevertheless.  But  the 
objection  does  not  really  deserve  the  recognition  of  an 
answer. 

All  possible  objections  to  reincarnation  must  likewise 
disappear  under  the  light  of  philosophy  and  logic,  and  it 
is  only  necessary  that  such  objections  be  thus  examined 
for  the  proof  that  this  is  an  universal  factor  in  nature  and 
the  method  by  means  of  which  evolution  proceeds  to 
dawn  upon  the  mind  as  clearly  and  convincingly  as 
though  one  had  set  himself  deliberately  to  prove  its  truth; 
for  evolution  and  reincarnation  are  but  aspects  of  the 
one  eternal  process  in  nature — infinite  change. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

KARMA. 

T 7  ARM  A  is  the  law  of  cause  and  effect,  acting  upon  all 
j^\  planes.  It  is  entirely  impersonal  in  this  action;  and 
yet  it  acts  wisely,  intelligently  and  equitably,  although 
the  source  of  this  intelligence  and  wisdom  proceeds  from 
the  Unknowable.  It  does  not  reason,  as  we  understand 
reasoning,  nor  is  its  wisdom  accompanied  by  any  men- 
tality conceivable  to  human  minds.  Given  a  cause,  and 
its  corresponding  effect  will  follow  inevitably.  Could  this 
law  be  violated  in  but  one  instance,  however  trifling,  the 
whole  universe  would  fall  into  chaos,  like  a  child's  castle 
of  cards. 

Descartes  founded  his  famous  system  of  philosophy 
upon  the  postulate,  Cogito,  ergo  sum.  How  much  firmer 
a  basis  is  afforded  for  the  most  profound  conceptions  of 
the  universe  in  this  law  of  Karma,  that  Effect  follows 
Cause.  It  is  a  unit  of  measurement  applicable  to  every 
conceivable  point  of  space,  every  atom,  every  plane  of 
being,  every  manifestation  of  consciousness  in  all  this 
illimitable  Cosmos.  Taking  its  source  in  the  Unknow- 
able, yet  having  its  action  plainly  perceivable  upon  our 
planes  of  life,  it  is  the  link  which  binds  the  knowable  to 
the  Unknowable.  It  is  the  one  supreme  testimony  of 
unity  and  design,  of  intelligence  and  justice,  in  nature. 
Karma  is  but  another  name  for  the  great  Unknowable, 
CAUSELESS  CAUSE. 

Effect  follows  cause  in  the  emergence  of  Cosmos  from 
chaos;  in  the  struggle  for  existence  among  the  newly 


KARMA.  221 

formed  bodies  of  a  solar  system;  in  the  "  process  of  the 
suns"  as  they  wing  their  way  around  their  inconceivably 
vast  orbits;  in  the  aberrations  of  an  Uranus,  revealing  the 
presence  of  a  Neptune;  in  the  involution  and  evolution  of 
humanities;  in  the  birth,  life,  and  death  of  a  man,  of  a 
molecule,  or  of  a  planetary  system;  in  the  racial,  national, 
or  social  environments  of  the  individual;  in  the  presence 
of  evil  and  injustice  in  the  world;  in  the  intellectual 
capacity  of  men;  in  their  appetites,  passions,  and  desires; 
in  their  spiritual  aspirations;  in  their  diseases  and  vices; — 
in  short,  in  every  conceivable  juxtaposition  or  combina- 
tion of  thought,  act  or  event,  the  Law  is  absolute ;  Karma, 
all-pervading.  As  far  as  the  most  daring  generalizations 
of  the  human  mind  can  reach,  its  sway  is  absolute.  No 
exception  can  be  postulated.  Even  the  CAUSELESS 
CAUSE,  the  final  goal  of  all  rational  philosophies,  seems 
to  yield  obeisance  to  this  law  which  proceeds  out  of  its 
own  abysses,  for  the  manifestation  of  universes  would 
appear  to  be  only  links  in  an  Infinite  Cycle  of  Necessity. 
Once  the  universality  of  the  action  of  Karma  is  recog- 
nized, we  have  a  safe  basis  for  our  future  explorations. 
It  is  an  unfailing  touchstone,  wherewith  we  can  test  the 
truth  of  any  proposition,  whether  religious,  scientific,  or 
philosophical.  Its  application  to  the  problems  of  human 
life — to  which,  indeed,  the  term  is  commonly  limited — 
constitutes  the  motive  of  this  chapter.  The  importance 
of  this  phase  of  its  study  cannot  be  overestimated  when 
we  recognize  that  our  whole  life  is  but  a  succession  of 
Nidanas,  a  chain  of  causes  and  effects,  of  which  each  ef- 
fect becomes  a  cause  in  its  own  turn,  and  so  on,  in  end- 
less progression.  No  act,  however  trivial;  no  thought, 
however  faint;  no  emotion,  however  fleeting — but  is  a 


222  A   STUDY   OF   THE   SOUL. 

cause,  a  bit  of  woof  woven  in  the  warp  of  our  being,  and 
giving  it  color  and  texture.  An  idle  word — how  often  it 
changes  a  whole  life;  a  thoughtless  act,  whose  effects,  or 
karma,  follow  us  to  and  even  beyond  the  grave  !  For  it 
is  a  portion  of  this  law  that  while  any  act  or  thought  of 
ours  may  have  its  effect  either  within  us,  or  externally 
upon  others,  the  reaction,  which  is  this  effect  become  a 
cause  again,  must  expend  itself  upon  us  individually. 
And  it  is  most  difficult  to  judge  of  the  comparative  mag- 
nitude of  the  causes  we  set  in  motion.  A  pebble 
thrown  into  the  'ocean  seems  a  trifling  cause,  yet  every 
separate  drop  in  all  the  vast  expanse  of  waters  has  to 
readjust  its  relations,  as  a  direct  and  purely  physical 
effect.  And  in  addition  to  this  permanent  readjust- 
ment, the  law  of  reaction,  or  restored  equilibrium,  re- 
quires every  iota  of  force  thrown  off  by  the  falling  peb- 
ble to  be  returned  to  its  source.  In  other  words,  the 
pebble  has  to  receive  a  shock  equal  to  that  which  it  set 
in  motion.  In  this  simile,  the  original  cause  would  be 
the  falling  pebble;  its  effect,  the  readjustment  of  the 
waters  of  the  entire  ocean;  the  reaction,  or  its  personal 
Karma,  the  impulse  of  returning  pressure,  which,  in  rela- 
tion to  it,  has  become  a  cause  again.  In  like  manner, 
every  act  or  thought  of  a  man  affects  as  a  cause  all 
other  men  in  some  degree,  and  this  effect  upon  them  will 
be  returned  to  him,  as  a  new  cause,  modifying  his  being 
to  the  extent  of  the  effects  it  originally  produced.  . 

It  will  thus  be  seen  how  impossible  it  is  for  any  one  to 
separate  his  Karma  from  that  of  his  fellow-men.  The 
interweaving  and  correlations  are  necessarily  infinite;  and 
naught  but  infinite  wisdom,  as  embodied  in  the  divine 
law  of  Karma,  could  mete  out  exact  justice  to  us  for  all 


KARMA.  223 

the  multiform  deeds  of  a  lifetime.  Isolation  is  a  chimera. 
A  Crusoe,  on  a  desert  island,  will  reach  out  to  and  affect 
the  whole  mass  of  humanity;  for  the  pictures  of  his  acts 
and  thoughts,  reflected  in  the  astral  light,  will  be  re-reflect- 
ed upon  the  physical  plane,  and  influence  to  some  degree 
the  thought  of  the  world.  No  man  can  think  a  good 
thought  without  the  whole  of  humanity  being  somewhat 
the  better  for  it ;  no  man  can  sin  against  his  higher  nature 
without  lowering  the  moral  standard  of  the  whole  world 
to  some  extent. 

This  inevitable  and  necessary  interblending  of  all  our 
Karmas  forms  a  true  and  scientific  basis  for  the  The- 
osophic  conception  of  universal  brotherhood;  a  reason, 
logical  and  necessary,  for  the  practice  of  altruism.  It 
also  affords  an  occasion  for  the  separation  of  karmic  ad- 
justments into  classes,  according  as  these  relate  to  the  in- 
dividual himself  or  to  his  immediate  or  remote  environ- 
ments. Thus  that  aspect  which  views  the  Karma  of  all 
the  units  as  one  great  whole  would  be  termed  world 
Karma;  that  which  relates  one  to  his  race,  his  nation,  his 
community,  and  his  family,  would  be  respectively,  race, 
national,  social,  and  family  Karma;  while  the  compara- 
tively minute  portion  remaining  would  constitute  his  own, 
or  his  individual  Karma.  Yet  this  almost  infinitesimal 
portion,  this  drop  in  the  sea,  is  that  with  which  we  princi- 
pally concern  ourselves,  as  the  very  apotheosis  of  selfish- 
ness. Our  hopes,  our  purification,  our  progress,  seem,  to 
our  blinded  eyes,  of  paramount  importance;  so  subtle  do 
vanity  and  self-esteem  become  when  transmuted  to  higher 
planes.  Bereft  of  intelligence,  and  depending  upon  brute 
force  alone,  of  how  much  avail  would  be  the  strength  of 
one  man  against  the  united  sinews  of  his  race,  his  nation, 


224  A    STUDY   OF   THE   SOUL. 

or  even  against  his  community  ?  In  exact  proportion  is 
the  ratio  of  his  Karma  to  that  of  his  community,  his  na- 
tion, or  his  race.  It  is  lost  in  the  great  whole;  it  is  of 
account  only  before  that  tribunal  which  "  numbers  the 
hairs  upon  our  heads."  Let  him  who  would  attain  per- 
sonal "  salvation,"  who  would  separate  his  Karma  from 
that  of  a  wicked,  sinful  race  by  retiring  to  the  jungle,  or 
within  the  recesses  of  his  own  selfish  heart,  and  there 
practicing  the  most  austere  virtues,  go  out  and  push 
against  the  side  of  a  mountain,  in  the  hope  of  retarding 
the  revolution  of  the  earth  from  West  to  East,  for  the  one 
effort  will  be  of  as  much  avail  as  the  other. 

Are  there  not  thousands  of  men,  whose  personal 
Karma  would  entitle  them  to  be  born  under  conditions  as 
delightful  and  just  as  any  ever  depicted  by  a  Bellamy, 
whose  moral  natures  quiver  under  the  outrageous  ethics 
of  our  social  system  every  hour  of  their  lives,  yet  who  are 
compelled  by  the  national  Karma  which  overwhelms  them 
to  do  the  very  acts  they  loathe;  to  live  by  taking  the  very 
interest,  profit,  or  rent  which  they  abhor?  Are  there  not 
tens  of  thousands,  whose  sincere  efforts  in  other  lives  to 
attain  to  truth  would  have  entitled  them  as  units  to  its 
revelation,  who  are  nevertheless  born  in  Christian  or 
pagan  lands  where  the  racial  Karma  offers  only  crude 
dogmas  or  childish  creeds  ?  But  has  the  justice  of  Karma 
failed,  then,  because  of  this  seeming  injustice?  Not  so; 
the  efforts  of  these,  even  in  the  direction  of  truth  and 
purity,  have  been  selfish;  they  have  striven  egotistically, 
not  altruistically;  have  worked  for  their  personal  salva- 
tion, not  to  save  others.  They  have  created  good  per- 
sonal Karma,  and  Karma  repays  them  to  the  uttermost 
farthing,  but  they  have  done  nothing  to  lighten  the  race 


KARMA.  225 

or  national  Karma,  and  they  are  engulfed  in  its  floods. 
It  was  no  chance  thought,  no  accidental  insertion  of  a 
"glittering  generality,"  which  declared  the  first  object  of 
the  Theosophic  Society  to  be  the  formation  of  a  nucleus 
for  an  Universal  Brotherhood.  It  evidences  a  wisdom 
and  knowledge  of  the  working  of  the  law  of  Karma  far 
transcending  our  petty  conceptions.  Altruistic  effort  is 
the  law  of  spiritual  progress  because  of  the  commingling 
of  our  Karmas;  and  even  in  selfish  self-preservation,  if 
from  no  higher  motive,  we  ought  to  practice  it.  We 
recognize  the  injustice,  the  falsity,  the  hollowness  of  the 
social,  ethical  and  religious  customs  of  our  time,  yet  we 
accept  them  and  raise  no  protesting  voice,  because  the 
whole  world  is  against  us,  or  we  fancy  it  is.  Can  we 
charge  it  to  the  injustice  of  this  divine  law,  then,  if  our 
next  incarnation  find  us  the  son  of  a  money-changer,  with 
the  lust  of  gold  tainting  our  very  mothers'  milk?  If  the 
world  is  too  hard  for  us  now,  will  it  not  be  so  then  ?  Let 
us  exercise  a  little  common  sense  in  our  study  of  Karma; 
let  us  remember  that  it  is  simply  "  cause  and  effect,"  and 
cannot  but  be  just. 

There  is  too  much  of  the  Christian  idea  of  the  entire 
separation  of  earthly  from  heavenly  concerns  abroad  in 
the  land.  If  we  find  this  world  in  a  bad  state  morally 
and  ethically,  we  must  logically  expect  to  find  it  in  a  sim- 
ilar one  when  we  reincarnate,  especially  if  we  did  nothing 
towards  lightening  the  world  Karma.  Cause  precedes 
effect,  on  all  planes.  Our  first  duty,  to  be  sure,  is  to 
make  ourselves  personally  pure,  because  this  is  always  at 
hand,  and  always  practicable;  our  next,  to  strive  for  the 
elevation  of  our  community,  then  our  state,  our  nation, 
our  race;  each  member  of  which  ascending  series  includes 


226  A   STUDY    OF   THE   SOUL. 

all  below  it,  so  that  in  working  for  humanity  we  are  puri- 
fying our  race,  our  nation,  our  community,  and  ourselves. 
And  the  effect  of  the  causes  we  set  up,  of  the  Karma  we 
generate,  is  the  greater  as  we  ascend  the  series  in  motive. 
It  is  this  which  gives  the  thought  and  the  act  force. 
Thought  is  creative,  and  that  which  aims  at  the  elevation 
of  the  race  will  prove  incomparably  more  potent  a  factor 
for  good  than  that  directed  towards  petty  or  selfish  aims. 
We  are  but  as  drops  in  the  great  ocean  of  life.  Our 
very  souls  are  tainted  by  the  saltness  and  bitterness  of 
the  floods  about  us.  The  bitterness  of  the  whole  ocean 
can  only  be  removed,  and  its  waters  made  pleasant  and 
sweet,  by  the  sweetening  and  purification  of  each  separate 
drop.  No  one  can  do  this  for  another,  and  yet  each  can 
only  purify  himself  by  unselfish  work  for  others.  How 
beautifully  grand  is  the  LAW!  What  a  magnificent  stride 
above  and  beyond  the  brute  kingdom,  where  the 
Buchners,  Tyndalls,  Darwins,  and  Huxleys  would  perforce 
relegate  us!  The  law  of  the  animal  kingdom  is  egotism; 
the  survival  of  the  fittest;  the  cruel  struggle  for  existence. 
The  law  of  Karma  on  the  human  plane  is  altruism  and 
selflessness,  and  we  must  recognize  it  or  perish.  For 
cause  and  effect  are  at  work  in  higher  states  of  matter, 
employing  subtle  and  unperceived  forces.  The  childhood 
of  our  race  has  passed.  We  are  fast  reaching  our  major- 
ity, where  we  must  take  control  of  our  own  destinies,  for 
weal  or  woe.  No  longer  the  created,  borne  helplessly  yet 
safely  along  the  mighty  stream  of  evolution,  we  have  be- 
come creators,  and  are  karmically  responsible  for  that 
which  we  create.  Our  mouths  have  learned  to  voice  the 
WORD.  Every  thought  and  act  is  potent  for  good  or  evil; 
the  finer,  "  unscientific"  forces  of  nature  yield  obedience 


KARMA.  227 

and  obeisance  whether  we  are  aware  of  it  or  not.  It  is 
not  enough  that  we  recognize  the  universal  presence  of 
cause  and  effect,  the  omnipotence  and  omniscience  of 
Karma;  we  must  realize  that  we  are  free  to  change  and 
direct  this  divine  law,  to  our  preservation  or  our  destruc- 
tion. This  is  a  most  important  aspect  of  Karma,  which 
must  not  be  lost  sight  of.  As  the  whole  Cosmos  is  the 
thought  of  the  Absolute,  reflected  in  matter,  so  we,  as  a 
part  and  portion  of  that  Absolute,  exercise  and  employ 
creative  potencies  every  hour  of  our  lives.  Shall  we  con- 
tinue to  do  this  ignorantly  and  aimlessly,  or  shall  we  take 
a  firm  hold  upon  our  destinies  and  guide  our  souls  into 
the  haven  of  immortality?  Certain  it  is  that  we  must 
make  the  decision  soon,  for  we  are  pilgrims  in  the  cycle 
of  necessity ;  we  must  go  forward  either  to  safety  or  de- 
struction. And  this  is  not  predicated  upon  the  emotion- 
alism of  some  wailing  Jeremiah  of  ancient,  or  Buchanan 
of  modern,  times;  but  simply  and  entirely  for  the  reason 
that  EFFECT  follows  CAUSE.  One  is  the  upper,  the  other 
the  nether  mill-stone  of  fate,  and  we  are  inextricably 
caught  between  them. 

It  will  be  at  once  evident  that,  holding  as  it  does  to  the 
absolute  sway  of  cause  and  effect  upon  every  plane  of  the 
universe,  physical,  mental  and  spiritual,  Theosophy  stands 
in  irreconcilable  antagonism  to  the  Christian  dogma  of 
vicarious  atonement.  And  herein  is  the  chief  reason  why 
most  Theosophists  refuse  to  ally  themselves,  even  under 
the  name  of  Christian  Theosophists,  with  the  churches  of 
to-day.  They  recognize  fully  that  Christianity  is  an  hu- 
mane and  altruistic  effort  to  improve  the  condition  of 
mankind  morally  and  spiritually;  but  this  error  of  the  di- 
vinity of  Christ  and  his  vicarious  atonement  is  too  basic 


228  A   STUDY   OF   THE   SOUL. 

in  its  nature,  too  far-reaching  in  its  karmic  results,  to  be 
passed  over  in  a  silence  which  might  be  construed  into 
acquiescence.  Each  time  that  a  repentant  sinner  is  as- 
sured that  the  effects  of  causes  he  himself  set  in  operation 
can  be  nullified  by  forgiveness  from  any  source,  he  is 
being  taught  an  untruth  which  can  not  but  imperil  the  fut- 
ure development  of  his  soul.  Each  time  a  priest  pro- 
nounces absolution  over  some  terrified  wretch  whom  the 
shadow  of  the  gallows,  perhaps,  has  frightened  into  "  re- 
pentance" after  a  long  life  of  selfishness  and  crime,  he 
assumes  an  authority  and  a  power  which  is  absolutely  at 
variance  with  the  law  to  which  he  owes  his  own  existence. 
The  marked  contrast  between  the  philosophical  doctrine 
of  Karma  and  the  dogma  of  vicarious  atonement  has  been 
well  set  forth  by  a  recent  writer.*  He  says: 

"There  is  a  wide  gulf  between  the  Buddhist  doctrine  of  Karma  and 
the  Christian  teaching  regarding  the  dispensing  of  reward  and  pun- 
ishment. In  proportion  to  that  difference  the  moral  control  exer- 
cised on  human  actions  must  differ  in  a  corresponding  degree. 
Karma,  according  to  Buddhism  and  other  Eastern  schools  of  philos- 
ophy, is  an  inviolable,  natural  law,  which  controls  the  lives  of  all 
sentient  beings  in  the  Universe,  and  which  in  its  turn  is  not  gov- 
erned by  any  superior  force  or  being.  As  long  as  thoughts  and 
actions  last  so  long  will  their  results,  or  Karma,  prevail.  The  least 
thing  moved  in  space  has  a  certain  effect  on  the  particles  floating 
thereon  ;  the  slightest  motion  in  water  gives  rise  to  ripple  after  ripple 
until  the  force  thereof  is  expended  ;  the  gentlest  sound  sends  forth 
vibrations  producing  change  somewhere  ;  and  the  very  smallest 
thought  has  also  its  tendency  to  disturb  either  the  thinker  or  the  ob- 
ject thought  of.  The  further  such  research  is  extended,  the  more 
will  the  application  of  the  karmic  law  to  human  actions  prove  to  be 
as  true  and  natural  as  are  the  laws  of  attraction  and  gravitation. 

*The  Buddhist. 


KARMA.  229 

Then,  when  it  is  known  by  man  that  all  his  thoughts  and  actions 
have  certain  tangible  and  perceptible  effects,  and  that  these  effects 
have  a  rebounding  tendency,  or  that  they  remain  registered  in  his 
manas  skandha,  to  cleave  to  him  in  whatever  condition  he  may  be 
hereafter,  a  lasting  and  powerful  impression  of  awe  and  veneration 
must  be  the  natural  result  created  in  his  mind.  He  who  is  morally 
convinced  of  the  inevitable  effect  and  danger  of  certain  thoughts  and 
actions,  and  of  the  reward  which  awaits  him  through  certain  others, 
must  be  more  deeply  impressed  in  mind  than  another  who  entertains 
no  such  belief.  The  Christian  doctrine  of  the  absolution  of  sins  is  a 
total  cancellation  of  the  past — whether  there  be  crimes  of  the  black- 
est type  or  not — by  an  act  of  momentary  repentance,  which  places 
the  wretched  moral  leper  on  a  par  with  the  most  exalted  saint.  It  is 
apparent  from  this  fact  that  the  votaries  of  Christianity  must  rely 
more  upon  supernatural  magic  to  ease  themselves  of  a  life  burden  of 
ugly  sins  than  upon  an  uncheckered  course  of  pure,  moral  life.  If 
this  extraordinary  feat  could  be  scientifically  or  otherwise  demon- 
strated, there  are  many  in  these  glowing  Eastern  climes  who  would 
readily  embrace  Christianity." 

The  writer  also  shrewdly  draws  attention  to  the  fact, 
emphasized  in  the  first  portion  of  this  chapter  in  regard  to 
the  separation  by  Christians  of  earthly  from  heavenly 
concerns,  that  we  do  not  apply  the  doctrine  of  the  re- 
mission of  sins  in  our  treatment  of  criminals  to  any  very 
demoralizing  extent,  and  that  the  effect  of  such  an  appli- 
cation of  the  laws  of  heaven  to  earthly  conditions  would 
be  to  immeasurably  increase  lawlessness  and  crime. 

The  law  of  Karma,  too,  being  impersonal  in  its  action, 
solves  two  of  the  greatest  puzzles  over  which  Christianity 
has  pondered  in  vain.  These  are  the  presence  of  evil  in 
a  world  created  by  an  all-wise  and  all-powerful  Creator, 
and  free  will  consistent  with  omniscient  fore-knowledge. 
No  Christian  theology  has  ever  satisfactorily  explained 


230  A   STUDY   OF   THE    SOUL. 

why  an  omnipotent  God  did  not  devise  some  means 
whereby  he  might  save  from  the  eternal  flames  lost  souls 
which  his  omniscient  knowledge  informed  him  would 
eventually  be  eternally  lost.  And  if  God,  from  all 
eternity,  knew  a  thing  would  happen,  then  it  had  to 
happen;  and  just  how  this  could  be  reconciled  with  human 
free  will  was  another  of  those  conundrums  whose  dis- 
tinguishing peculiarity  is  that  they  have  no  answer. 

The  Presbyterian  branch,  of  all  the  protesting  churches, 
recognizes  the  logical  necessity  which  follows  postulating 
both  omnipotence  and  omniscience  of  a  personal  deity, 
and  boldly  avows  its  belief  in  predestination,  or  fatalism. 
As  quoted  from  J.  H.  Connelly,  in  the  Key  to  Theosophy^ 
their  Confession  of  Faith  declares : 

"  By  the  decree  of  God  and  for  the  manifestation  of  his  glory,  some 
men  and  angels  are  predestinated  ^fcnto  everlasting  life,  and  others 
foreordained  to  everlasting  death. 

' '  These  angels  and  men  thus  predestinated  and  foreordained  are  par- 
ticularly and  unchangeably  designed;  and  their  number  is  so  certain 

and  definite  that  it  cannot  be  either  increased  or  diminished As 

God  hath  appointed  the  elect  to  glory,  neither  are  any  other  re- 
deemed by  Christ,  effectually  called,  justified,  adopted,  and  sanctified 
and  saved,  but  the  Elect  only. 

'"The  rest  of  mankind  God  was  pleased,  according  to  the  unsearch- 
able counsel  of  his  own  will,  whereby  he  extendeth  or  withholdeth 
mercy  as  he  pleaseth,  for  the  glory  of  his  sovereign  power  over  his 
creatures,  to  pass  by  and  to  ordain  them  to  dishonor  and  wrath  for 
their  sin  to  the  praise  of  his  glorious  justice  !" 

This  is  not  the  ravings  of  some  hypochondriacal,  half- 
insane  prophet;  it  is  a  part  of  the  PRESBYTERIAN  CONFES- 
SION OF  FAITH,  and  is  accepted  to-day  by  a  very  large 
class  of  intelligent,  educated,  and  refined  gentlemen  and 
loving,  lovable  women,  who  would  no  more  do  that  which 


KARMA.  231 

they  declare  their  God  does,  daily  and  hourly,  than  they 
would  transform  themselves  into  fiends.  It  is  the  inevi- 
table and  logical  outcome  of  a  belief  whose  very  founda- 
tions are  laid  in  error. 

Is  Presbyterianism  alone  in  its  attributing  injustice  to 
God  which  it  would  deem  barbarous  and  unfeeling  in 
man  ?  By  no  means.  No  human  bar  of  justice,  imperfect 
as  is  the  attribute  in  our  breasts  in  its  present  stage  of 
development,  would  ever  doom  any  one  to  the  pangs  of 
ETERNAL  perdition  and  suffering  for  any  act,  however 
dreadful  or  cruel.  But  all  Christian  sects,  without  excep- 
tion, send  comparatively  innocent  souls  to  this  eternal 
damnation  for  simply  being  unable  to  believe  in  and  ac- 
cept this  awful  Jehovah  whom  they  have  set  up  for  wor- 
ship. In  his  profession  as  a  physician,  the  writer  has, 
time  and  again,  known  little  infants,  which  some  unfore- 
seen accident  deprived  of  life  before  receiving  baptism, 
refused  burial  in  "  sanctified"  ground  by  the  great 
Catholic  Church  and  condemned  to  the  woes  of  eternal 
torment  on  account  of  this  omission — a  little  water 
sprinkled  on  an  unconscious  infant  deciding  its  eternal 
destiny  !  What  a  conception  of  the  philosophy  of  exist- 
ence the  believers  in  such  dogmas  must  have  !  African 
fetich  worship  is  more  reasonable.  But  how  can  any 
system  of.  faith  or  philosophy  arrive  at  reasonable  or 
logical  conclusions  whose  very  base  is  founded  in  untruth 
and  error  ?  Like  a  mariner  whose  compass  is  untrue,  and 
who,  therefore,  only  deviates  the  more  the  farther  he  sails, 
so  Christian  creeds,  being  founded  in  error,  can  only  hope 
to  increase  their  separation  from  truth  the  farther  they 
pursue  any  train  of  explanation  or  reasoning. 

Let  it  be  understood,  once  for  all,  that  by  Christianity, 


232  A   STUDY   OF   THE   SOUL. 

throughout  this  chapter,  the  writer  refers  to  the  modern 
creeds  parading  under  this  falsely  assumed  title.  The 
teachings  of  the  Essenes,  of  whom  Christ  was  one,  are 
eminently  Theosophic  in  many  particulars,  and  both 
Christ  and  Paul  taught,  as  we  have  undoubted  reason  for 
believing,  pure  Theosophy  to  an  inner  circle  of  disciples. 
Only  to  the  multitude  "  spake  he  in  parables."  Christ 
was  continually  referring  to  the  god  within  him,  his 
"  Father,"  which,  by  implication  at  least,  he  taught  his 
disciples  that  they  also  possessed,  for  "  the  things  that  I 
do  shall  ye  do  also,  and  greater  because  I  go  to  my 
Father."  But  he  nowhere  refers  to  himself  as  the  Creator 
of  heaven  and  earth,  as  the  purely  personal  egotism  of  his 
latter-day  followers  has  led  them  to  assume. 

There  is  no  place,  then,  in  Theosophy  for  the  vicarious 
atonement,  or  the  setting  aside  the  law  of  cause  and 
effect,  which  is  the  very  soul  of  the  Christian  creeds  of 
to-day.  Justice  is  not  mocked  by  an  impossible  and 
unphilosophical  " forgiveness"  whose  sole  essential  is 
repentance.  As  well  might  a  dyke  repent  that  it  had 
burst  and  let  in  the  sea.  Repentance  itself  too  often 
consists  of  a  feeling  of  fear  of  the  consequence  of  our  act, 
rather  than  a  real  regret  for  what  we  have  done.  As 
J.  H.  Connelly  further  remarks: 

' '  The  sinner  is  told  that  he  must  also  repent,  but  nothing  is  easier 
than  that.  It  is  an  amiable  weakness  of  human  nature  that  we  are 
quite  prone  to  regret  the  evil  we  have  done  when  our  attention  is 
called,  and  we  have  either  suffered  from  it  ourselves  or  enjoyed  its 
fruits.  Possibly,  close  analysis  of  the  feeling  would  show  us  that 
which  we  regret  is  rather  the  necessity  which  seemed  to  require  the 
evil  as  a  means  of  attainment  of  our  selfish  ends  than  the  evil  itself. 

"  Attractive  as  this  prospect  of  casting  our  sins  at  the  foot  of  the 
Cross  may  be  to  the  ordinary  mind,  it  does  not  commend  itself  to  the 


KARMA.  233 

theosophic  student.  He  does  not  apprehend  why  the  student  by  at- 
taining knowledge  of  his  evil  can  thereby  merit  any  pardon  for  or  the 
blotting  out  of  his  past  wickedness;  or  why  repentance  and  future 
right  living  entitle  him  to  a  suspension  in  his  favor  of  the  universal 
law  of  relation  between  cause  and  effect.  The  results  of  his  evil 
deeds  continue  to  exist;  the  suffering  caused  to  others  by  his  wicked- 
ness is  not  blotted  out.  The  Theosophical  student  takes  the  result  of 
wickednes  upon  the  innocent  into  his  problem.  He  considers  not 
only  the  guilty  person,  but  his  victims. 

"Karma,  also,  rewards  merit  as  unerringly  as  it  punishes  demerit. 
It  is  the  outcome  of  every  act,  thought,  word  and  deed,  and  by  it 
men  mold  themselves,  their  lives  and  happenings.  Eastern  philos- 
ophy rejects  the  idea  of  a  newly-created  soul  for  every  baby  born. 
It  believes  in  a  limited  number  of  monads,  evolving  and  growing 
more  and  more  perfect  through  their  assimilation  of  many  successive 
personalities.  These  personalities  are  the  product  of  Karma,  and  it 
is  by  Karma  and  reincarnation  that  the  human  monad  in  time 
returns  to  its  source — absolute  Deity." 

Karma  is  inextricably  interwoven  with  reincarnation. 
Without  the  latter,  it  would  be  impossible  to  assume,  at 
least  in  human  affairs,  that  cause  is  invariably  followed  by 
effect.  The  many  murderers  who  escape  detection,  the 
hordes  of  those  who  grow  rich  through  robbing  the  poor, 
the  whole  tendency  of  an  age  where  honesty  is  not  the 
best  policy,  if  one  would  win  in  the  mad  race  for  wealth, 
all  show  but  too  plainly  that  one  life  is  too  short  for  exact 
justice  to  be  meted  out  to  any  one.  But,  "  though  the 
mills  of  the  gods  grind  slowly,  yet  they  grind  exceedingly 
small,"  and  there  is  no  more  beautiful  or  more  hope-in- 
spiring aspect  of  Karma  than  this  which  shows  it  capable 
of  biding  its  time.  Its  eternal  patience  must  seem  awful 
to  him  who  is  waiting  his  turn  at  the  mill.  There  is  no 
escape.  A  wheat  kernel  has  been  known  to  lie  thousands 


234  A   STUDY    OF   THE    SOUL. 

of  years  in  the  wrappings  of  a  mummy,  and  then  germ- 
inate upon  being  restored  to  warmth  and  moisture.  This 
is  the  key  to  and  the  proof  of  that  which  we  term  delayed 
Karma.  Desire  is  the  most  potent  of  all  forces,  and  we 
may  be  assured  that  the  attractions  for  evil  things  gen- 
erated by  the  usurer  or  murderer  will  prove  causes  which 
will  find  the  conditions  for  becoming  effects  in  some 
future  birth.  So  the  evils  which  we  uncomplainingly 
suffer  now  will  be  recompensed  to  the  utmost  in  some 
bright  and  beautiful,  though  it  may  be  far-off,  life.  What 
is  time  to  the  heir  of  eternity?  Thus  the  everlasting 
patience  of  Karma  assures  us  that  no  effort  we  make  can 
be  without  its  ultimate  reward ;  that  no  wrong  we  inflict 
can  escape  final  punishment. 

In  closing  this  brief  chapter  upon  a  subject  that  vol- 
umes would  leave  unexhausted,  we  can  do  no  better  than 
to  quote  from  the  Teacher  to  whom  the  Western  world  is 
indebted  for  this  revival  of  an  almost  forgotten  truth.  In 
the  Secret  Doctrine,  Madame  Blavatsky  writes : 

"Yes  ;  f  our  destiny  is  written  in  the  stars  ! '  Only  the  closer  the 
union  between  the  mortal  reflection,  MAN,  and  his  celestial  PROTO- 
TYPE, the  less  dangerous  the  external  conditions  and  subsequent 
reincarnations — which  neither  Buddhas  nor  Christs  can  escape.  This 
is  not  superstition,  least  of  all  is  it  fatalism.  The  latter  implies  a 
blind  course  of  some  still  blinder  power,  and  man  is  a  free  agent 

during  his  stay  on  earth Those  who  believe  in  Karma 

have  to  believe  in  destiny,  which,  from  birth  to  death,  every  man  is 
weaving,  thread  by  thread,  around  himself,  as  a  spider  does  his  cob- 
web ;  and  this  destiny  is  guided  either  by  the  heavenly  voice  of  the 
invisible  prototype  outside  of  us,  or  by  our  more  intimate  astral  or 
inner  man,  who  is  but  too  often  the  evil  genius  of  the  embodied 
entity  called  man.  Both  these  lead  on  the  outward  man,  but  one  of 
them  must  prevail  ;  and  from  the  very  beginning  of  the  invisible 


KARMA.  235 

affray,  the  stern  and  implacable  law  of  compensation  steps  in  and 
takes  its  course,  faithfully  following  the  fluctuations.  When  the 
last  strand  is  woven  and  man  is  seemingly  enwrapped  in  the  net- 
work of  his  own  doing,  then  he  finds  himself  completely  under  the 

empire  of  this   self-made  destiny There  is  no  return  from  the 

paths  Karma  cycles  over ;  yet  these  paths  are  of  our  own  making, 
for  it  is  we,  collectively  or  individually,  who  prepare  them.  Karma- 
Nemesis  is  the  synonym  of  PROVIDENCE,  minus  design,  goodness 
and  every  other  finite  attribute  or  qualification,  so  unphilosophically 
attributed  to  the  latter.  An  Occultist  or  A  philosopher  will  not 
speak  of  the  goodness  nor  cruelty  of  providence,  but,  identifying  it 
with  Karma-Nemesis,  he  will  teach  that  nevertheless  it  guards  the 
good  and  watches* over  them  in  this,  as  in  future  lives ;  and  that  it 
punishes  the  evil  doer — aye,  even  to  his  seventh  re-birth.  So  long, 
in  short,  as  the  effect  of  his  having  thrown  into  perturbation  even 
the  smallest  atom  in  the  infinite  world  of  harmony,  has  not  been 
finally  readjusted.  For  the  only  decree  of  Karma — an  eternal  and 
immutable  decree — is  absolute  harmony  in  the  world  of  matter  as  it 
is  in  the  world  of  spirit.  It  is  not,  therefore,  Karma  which  rewards 
or  punishes,  but  it  is  we  who  reward  and  punish  ourselves  according 
to  whether  we  work  with,  through,  and  along  with  nature,  abiding 
by  the  laws  on  which  that  harmony  depends,  or — break  them. 

"  Nor  would  the  ways  of  Karma  be  inscrutable  were  men  to  work 
in  union  and  harmony  instead  of  disunion  and  strife.  For  our 
ignorance  of  these  ways — which  one  portion  of  mankind  calls  the 
ways  of  Providence,  dark  and  intricate,  while  another  sees  in  them 
the  action  of  blind  fatalism,  and  a  third,  simple  chance,  with  neither 
gods  nor  devils  to  guide  them — would  surely  disappear,  if  we  would 
but  attribute  all  these  to  their  correct  cause With  right  knowl- 
edge  two-thirds  of  the  world's  evil  would  vanish  into  thin  air. 

Were  no  man  to  hurt  his  brother,  Karma-Nemesis  would  have 
neither  cause  to  work,  nor  weapons  to  act  through.  It  is  the  con- 
stant presence  in  our  midst  of  every  element  of  strife  and  opposition, 
and  the  division  of  races,  nations,  tribes,  societies  and  individuals 
into  Cains  and  Abels,  wolves  and  lambs,  that  is  the  chief  cause  of 


236  A   STUDY    OF   THE   SOUL. 

the  ways  of  Providence.  We  cut  these  numerous  windings  in  our 
destinies  daily  with  our  own  hands,  while  we  imagine  that  we  are 
pursuing  a  track  on  the  royal  high  road  of  respectability  and  duty, 
and  then  complain  of  these  ways  being  so  intricate  and  dark.  We 
stand  bewildered  before  the  mystery  of  our  own  making,  and  the 
riddles  of  life  that  we  will  not  solve,  and  then  we  accuse  the  great 
Sphynx  of  devouring  us.  But,  verily,  there  is  not  an  accident  of  our 
lives,  nor  a  mishappen  day,  nor  a  misfortune  that  could  not  be 
traced  back  to  our  own  doings  in  this  or  another  life. 

"The  law  of  Karma 'is  inextricably  interwoven  with  that  of  Re- 
incarnation  It  is  only  this  doctrine  that  can  explain  the  myster- 
ious problem  of  good  and  evil,  and  reconcile  man  to  the  terrible  and 
apparent  injustice  of  life.  Nothing  but  such  certainty  can  quiet  our 
revolted  sense  of  justice.  For,  when  one  acquainted  with  the  noble 
doctrine  looks  around  him  and  observes  the  inequalities  of  birth  and 
fortune,  of  intellect  and  capacities  ;  when  one  sees  honor  paid  to 
fools  and  profligates,  on  whom  fortune  has  heaped  her  favors  by 
mere  privilege  of  birth,  and  their  nearest  neighbor,  with  all  his 
intellect  and  noble  virtues — far  more  deserving  in  every  way — perish- 
ing for  want  and  for  lack  of  sympathy  ; — when  one  sees  all  this  and 
has  to  turn  away,  helpless  to  relieve  the  undeserved  suffering,  one's 
ears  ringing  and  one's  heart  aching  with  the  cries  of  pain  around 
him,  that  blessed  knowledge  of  Karma  alone  prevents  him  from 
cursing  life  and  men  as  well  as  their  supposed  Creator.  This  law, 
whether  conscious  or  unconscious,  predestines  nothing  and  no  one. 
It  exists  from  and  in  eternity  truly,  for  it  is  eternity  itself;  and  as 
such,  since  no  act  can  be  co-equal  with  eternity,  it  cannot  be  said  to 
act,  for  it  is  action  itself.  It  is  not  the  wave  which  drowns  the  man, 
but  the  personal  action  of  the  wretch  who  goes  deliberately  and 
places  himself  under  the  impersonal  action  of  the  laws  that  govern 
the  ocean's  motion.  Karma  creates  nothing,  nor  does  it  design.  It 
is  man  who  plants  and  creates  causes,  and  karmic  law  adjusts  the 
effects,  which  adjustment  is  not  an  act  but  universal  harmony  tend- 
ing ever  to  resume  its  original  position,  like  a  bough  which,  bent 
down  too  forcibly,  rebounds  with  corresponding  vigor.  If  it  happen 


KARMA.  237 

to  dislocate  the  arm  that  tried  to  bend  it  out  of  its  natural  position, 
shall  we  say  it  is  the  bough  which  broke  our  arm,  or  that  our  own 
folly  has  brought  us  to  grief?  Karma  has  never  sought  to  destroy 
intellectual  and  individual  liberty,  like  the  god  invented  by  the 
monotheists.  It  has  not  involved  its  decrees  in  darkness  purposely 
to  perplex  man,  nor  shall  it  punish  him  who  dares  to  scrutinize  its 
mysteries.  On  the  contrary,  he  who  unveils,  through  study  and 
meditation,  its  intricate  paths,  and  throws  light  on  those  dark  ways, 
in  the  windings  of  which  so  many  men  perish  owing  to  their  ignor- 
ance of  the  labyrinth  of  life,  is  working  for  the  good  of  his  fellow- 
men.  Karma  is  an  absolute  and  eternal  law  in  the  world  of  mani- 
festation ;  and  as  there  can  only  be  one  absolute,  one  eternal,  ever- 
present  cause,  believers  in  Karma  cannot  be  regarded  as  atheists  or 
materialists,  still  less  as  fatalists,  for  Karma  is  one  with  the  Un- 
knowable, of  which  it  is  an  aspect,  in  its  effects  in  the  phenomenal 
world. ' ' 

The  confusion  of  Karma  with  predestination  or  fatalism 
can  easily  be  avoided  by  remembering  that  our  Karma  is 
predestined  to  the  extent  that  we  must  experience  the 
effects  of  causes  we  have  set  up  in  past  lives,  only.  Yet, 
even  while  suffering,  this  effect  changes  into  a  new  cause, 
according  to  our  mental  attitude  towards  it.  Thus  he 
who  has  been  sent  by  deeds  done  in  past  lives  into  a 
diseased  body,  by  his  fortitude  in  bearing  this  just  effect 
of  his  own  acts  can  rise  on  the  "  stepping-stones  of  his 
dead  self  to  higher  things";  while,  by  rebellion  and  rail- 
ings against  what  he  is  pleased — or  taught — to  call  "  fate," 
he  enacts  new  causes  whose  effects  can  but  be  unfavorable. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

ETHICAL  CONCLUSIONS. 

YT7HE  truth  of  the  reincarnation  of  the  human  soul  car- 
ries with  it  as  necessary  corollaries  most  important 
ethical  conclusions.  It  establishes  a  philosophic  and 
legitimately  scientific  basis  for  human  conduct — some- 
thing that  the  world  has  not  had  since  the  perversion  of 
the  teachings  of  Christ,  during  the  second  and  third 
centuries  of  this  era.  Even  at  that  time  the  real  gnosis 
underlying  Christ's  tenets  was  only  trusted  in  the  hands 
of  an  inner  circle  of  disciples,  and  by  no  means  given  to 
the  world  at  large.  "  Cast  not  your  pearls  before  swine," 
taught  this  Master,  which  reservation  may  have  afforded 
the  very  opportunity  for  perversion  by  prohibiting  the 
giving  out  of  the  real  truth  when  erroneous  teachings 
began  to  creep  in  through  the  ignorance  of  the  Church 
Fathers.  Certainly,  not  within  the  records  of  modern 
history  has  there  been  such  an  unveiling  of  Isis,  such 
light  thrown  upon  the  problems  ^of  human  life,  as  in  the 
writings  of  Madame  H.  P.  Blavatsky,  which  goes  to  prove 
that  human  necessity  must  have  been  very  urgent  for  the 
Custodians  of  the  Archaic  Wisdom  to  have  permitted  this 
profuse  giving  out  of  sacred  and  secret  teachings. 

At  any  rate,  enough  light  has  been  thrown  upon  man's 
relation  to  his  fellow-men  and  to  nature  to  afford  a  sound 
basis  for  human  ethics.  As  a  part  of  the  great  Whole,  as 
an  emanation  from  a  higher  Logos,  and  constituting  him- 
self a  lower  one,  a  knowledge  of  these  relations  is  of 
infinite  importance  in  its  determining  influence  upon  not 


ETHICAL    CONCLUSIONS.  239 

only  his  highest  hopes,  aspirations,  ambitions,  but  also 
upon  his  every  thought  and  act  in  his  daily  life.  Know- 
ing this  life  to  be  but  a  school  for  preparing  him  for  a 
higher  and  happier  one,  and  that  this  happier  existence 
cannot  be  attained  by  any  sycophantic  adulation,  cajoling 
of  or  forgiveness  by  an  imaginary  Jehovah,  but  must  be 
won  under  the  iron  law  of  cause  and  effect;  and,  further, 
that,  like  pupils  in  our  public  schools,  he  will  be  kept  in 
this  grade  of  sin  and  suffering  by  continually  reincarnat- 
ing until  he  himself  earns  his  promotion  to  a  higher  one — 
man  cannot  but  begin  to  examine  his  motives  more 
closely,  to  pay  some  attention  to  the  debtor  and  creditor 
account  of  a  karma  as  accurate  as  it  is  inevitable. 

Under  the  short-sighted  Western  conception  of  but  one 
existence  upon  this  earth,  the  numerous  and  grossly  pal- 
pable failures  in  justice,  in  human  affairs,  have  exerted  a 
most  pernicious  influence  upon  human  ethics.  Solomon, 
indeed,  declared  that  he  had  never  "  seen  the  righteous 
forsaken,  nor  his  seed  begging  bread";  but  the  very  reverse 
obtains  under  our  social  system,  in  which,  as  caustically 
remarked  by  Madame  Blavatsky,  we  have  made  of  vice 
an  art  and  of  selfishness  a  basis  for  ethics.  We  loudly 
claim  that  "  honesty  is  the  best  policy,"  while  thousands 
of  millionaires  who  have  come  dishonestly  by  every 
penny  of  their  hoards  not  only  go  down  to  peaceful  and 
honored  graves,  but  with  the  assurance — signed,  sealed, 
executed,  and  the  "  cash  "  equivalent  receipted  for — of 
eternal  happiness  in  the  future. 

Under  the  broader  view,  all  these  apparent  failures  in 
justice  are  recognized  as  only  apparent,  and  not  real, 
human  self-respect  is  restored ;  and  the  intuitive  belief  that 
honesty  is  the  best  policy,  obscured  by  the  one-life  hori- 


240  A   STUDY   OF   THE   SOUL. 

zon,  becomes  magnificently  demonstrated  as  these  hori- 
zons are  seen  to  stretch  away  into  an  infinite  perspective. 
Recognizing  that  we  ourselves  have  made  the  bitter  pres- 
ent by  an  unwise  past,  that  we  have  not  been  unjustly  and 
causelessly  born  into  this  sphere  of  existence  the  helpless 
victims  of  fate  or  of  accident,  we  can  set  ourselves  cheer- 
fully to  right  by  the  light  of  the  broader  conception, 
environments,  both  physical  and  mental,  which  we  know 
to  be  but  the  meting  out  of  exact  and  impersonal  justice  to 
us.  By  the  light  of  Reincarnation  and  Karma,  we  per- 
ceive that  the  social  injustices  with  which  our  civilization 
is  now  cursed  are  rooted  too  deeply  to  be  plucked  out  by 
merely  changing  our  laws.  Human  desires  and  motives 
must  be  radically  changed,  and  this  can  only  be  done  by 
making  man  aware  of  his  true  nature  and  god-like  destiny. 
Then  he  will  recognize  that  all  the  evils  which  now 
threaten  to  engulf  humanity  in  a  sea  of  anarchy  and 
bloodshed  arise  wholly  out  of  yielding  to  the  dominance 
of  the  animal  portion  of  his  being — are  on  the  animal 
plane — and  that  all  appeals  to  force  or  violence  can  only 
still  further  arouse  and  strengthen  those  brutal  elements 
to  control  and  spiritualize,  which  (s  the  chief  reason  for 
incarnation  upon  this  earth.  Social  and  political  reform 
must  proceed,  like  every  other  process  in  nature,  from 
within  without;  and  when  the  inner  desire  to  act  justly 
shall  have  arisen,  the  outer  act  will  quickly  conform. 
Meanwhile,  no  effort  to  show  the  real  unity  and  solidarity 
of  humanity  is  of  as  great  importance  as  the  popularizing 
of  the  teachings  of  Reincarnation,  which  distinguishes  the 
true  man  and  his  necessities  from  the  false  one  with  his 
illusionary  ambitions,  and  Karma,  which  shows  that  social 
as  well  as  all  other  evolution  takes  place  under  the  law  of 
cause  and  effect,  and  cannot  but  act  justly. 


ETHICAL   CONCLUSIONS.  241 

Aside  from  social  and  political  considerations,  the  twin 
truths  of  Reincarnation  and  Karma,  when  once  clearly 
comprehended,  satisfy  the  religious  element  which  is,  or 
ought  to  be,  so  deeply  engrafted  in  every  human  heart. 
It  has  been  well  and  truly  said  that  "  religion  is  for  the 
wise,  and  superstition  for  the  ignorant";  and  within  these 
teachings  only  is  to  be  found  that  food  which  will  supply 
the  need  of  rational  and  philosophical  men  for  a  scientific 
and  philosophical  religion.  Therefore,  from  the  religious 
standpoint,  this  inquiry  into  the  nature  and  functions  of 
the  soul  is  amply  justified.  Blind  faith  alone  fails  ;  creeds 
are  but  idle  patterings  and  empty  sounds;  man  must 
know  his  destiny,  or  the  incentive  to  upward  exertion  is 
largely  paralyzed.  Reason  teaches  us  that  death  cannot 
transport  us  where  we  are  not  now;  cannot  act  as  a  kind 
of  moral  filter,  that  in  some  miraculous  way  will  remove 
the  impurities  of  our  lower  nature,  and  fit  us  for  habita- 
tion in  some  high  or  "  heavenly  "  sphere,  nor,  failing  this, 
transport  us  to  some  inconceivably  horrible  hell.  The 
chain  of  life  is  formed  of  continuous  links.  We  have 
become  what  we  are  by  an  infinite  series  of  past  lives; 
we  have  to  work  out  our  future  destiny  by  an  infinite  ser- 
ies of  lives  to  come.  Here,  where  we  are  struggling  in 
the  bonds  of  matter,  is  our  only  "  hell,"  the  law  of  cause 
and  effect  our  sole  punisher,  and  "  heaven  "  our  release 
from  sensuous  existence  either  temporarily  by  death,  or 
wholly  through  our  evolving  beyond  sensuous  necessities. 
The  warning  voice  of  conscience  is  but  the  voice  of  our 
Higher  Ego,  speaking  as  the  result  of  actual  experience 
and  wisdom.  And  because  the  seat  of  conscience  is,  of 
necessity,  in  the  Higher  Ego,  it  therefore  seems  to  us  as 
though  it  came  from  some  outside  source,  when  it  is  in 


242  A   STUDY   OF   THE   SOUL. 

reality  our  true  self,  vainly  endeavoring  to  guide  and  con- 
trol the  coarse  and  unwieldly  physical  machine,  to  which 
it  finds  itself  karmically  attached,  and  with  which  it  is 
therefore  so  closely  inter-related  that  the  one  must  ever 
react  upon  the  other.  Out  of  this  action  and  reaction 
grows  the  real  battle  of  life;  the  tide  turning  now  this 
way  and  now  that.  Knowing  all  this,  man  will  rest 
secure  in  the  Divine  law  of  cause  and  effect,  which 
neither  punishes  nor  rewards,  but  wisely,  justly,  and  inex- 
orably adjusts  each  cause  to  its  corresponding  effect. 
Knowing  himself  to  be  the  arbiter  of  his  own  destiny,  he 
will  cease  to  complain;  cease  to  attribute  his  sorrows  and 
sufferings  to  the  ways  of  a  mysterious  providence;  and 
recognizing  that  nothing  has  come  nor  can  come  to  him 
which  is  not  his  own  by  virtue  of  having  created  or  caused 
it,  he  will  begin  the  warfare  against  his  lower  nature  with 
a  strength  of  purpose  and  determination  to  succeed  im- 
possible before  this  realization.  The  worlds,  the  stars,  and 
suns  will  no  longer  be  created  solely  for  him,  but  rather 
he  for  them.  Even  the  strife  in  nature,  the  cruel  struggle 
for  existence,  will  not  seem  so  dreadful  when  he  realizes 
that  nothing  is  really  slain;  that  "he  who  slays  and  he 
who  thinks  himself  slain  are  alike  deceived."  Nor  will  he 
longer  trust  to  forms  and  creeds,  but  instead  will  retire  to 
the  inner  chamber  of  his  own  heart  and  worship  silently 
that  which  is  equally  at  the  basis  of  his  soul  as  it  is  at  the 
base  of  the  flower  or  stone,  the  Unknowable,  Inconceiv- 
able Causeless  Cause. 

Realizing  through  these  teachings  the  actual,  dynamic 
brotherhood  of  mankind ;  that  the  fall  of  one  proportion- 
ately hurts  and  retards  the  advancement  of  the  race;  and 
that  the  attainment  of  the  goal  of  assured  immortality  by 


ETHICAL   CONCLUSIONS.  243 

but  one  faithful,  unselfish,  sacrificing  soul  shortens  in 
some  degree  the  weary  path  to  be  trod  by  his  brother 
men — he  will  merge  all  merely  selfish  longings  in  the 
realization  of  the  help  to  others  thus  afforded  by  his  own 
toil,  and  patiently  and  tranquilly  work  for  Humanity,  un- 
terrified  by  life  and  undismayed  by  death. 

Rightly  comprehended,  then,  Reincarnation  comes  to 
us  as  a  message  of  hope,  of  love,  and  of  Divine  encourage- 
ment. To  those  who  so  pitifully  cling  to  youth  and  the 
pleasures  of  the  young,  it  holds  the  promise  of  renewed 
youth,  life  after  life.  To  him  who  has  been  conquered  in 
the  battle  of  life,  it  offers  other  opportunities  for  further 
and  more  efficient  battling.  To  all  it  promises  that  no 
effort  shall  be  lost,  nor  without  its  reward;  that  the  aspir- 
ations unable  to  be  realized  now  shall  find  full  fruition 
then ;  that  the  very  loved  ones  of  this  life,  so  rudely  torn 
from  us  by  death,  will  be  again  attracted  by  and  drawn  to 
us  in  our  next  earth-life,  to  renew  the  interrupted  associa- 
tions. 

But  the  great,  the  all-important  lesson  Reincarnation 
teaches  is  that  our  powers  are  infinite,  our  opportunities 
eternal,  and  our  goal  god-liice.  Our  progress  is  illimitable, 
and  death  but  a  brief  rest  in  a  way-side  inn,  as  we  journey 
along.  After  each  death,  upon  reincarnating,  we  take  up 
our  earth  life  at  the  precise  point  we  laid  it  aside;  thus 
ever  increasing  our  wisdom  through  continuous  experi- 
ence. A  perfect  knowledge  of  earth  limitations  requires, 
as  we  have  seen,  that  each  man  should  undergo  every 
possible  phase  of  human  experience;  should  subdue  every 
variety  of  human  passion,  and  resist  every  form  of  temp- 
tation. Only  by  reincarnation  is  it  possible  to  do  this;  to 
round  out  and  develop  patience,  fortitude,  pity,  benevo- 


244  A   STUDY   OF   THE   SOUL. 

lence,  and  a  host  of  other  god-like  attributes;  all  of  which 
have  to  be  refined  out  of  the  crucible  of  actual  experience 
and  suffering.  One  life  is  all  too  short  for  the  lessons  of 
sympathy  and  love  we  have  to  learn,  ere  we  develop  com- 
passion for  the  woes  of  others  from  the  fires  of  our  own 
purification,  from  the  ashes  of  our  sacrificed  passions. 
One  life  is  all  too  short  for  us  even  to  approximate  that 
condition  of  spirituality  which  would  permit  us  to  exist 
for  a  moment  on  planes  where  earthly  concerns  and  de- 
sires are  utterly  unknown.  After  the  great  deep  had 
brought  forth  life  in  its  waters,  it  took  ages  for  the  water- 
breathing  vertebrates  to  so  accustom  themselves  to  the 
purer,  rarer  air  that  life  in  its  thin  gases  became  possi- 
ble for  them.  So  with  man's  spiritual  nature.  How  ab- 
surd, how  impossible,  to  fancy  him  as  capable  of  living 
under  spiritual  conditions  before  he  has  developed  the 
spiritual  power!  He  must  conquer  every  earthly  passion, 
subdue  every  mortal  desire,  and  keenly  realize  the  unsat- 
isfying nature,  the  instability,  of  material  life,  before  he 
can  hope  to  attain  to  the  life  spiritual.  At  present  man 
is  little  more  than  a  savage  in  his  instincts,  appetites,  and 
passions.  Let  him  first  become  a  MAN,  with  all  the  mag- 
nificent meaning  and  prophecy  in  the  word,  before  he  as- 
pires to  the  Elysean  fields  of  the  Gods.  Yet  these  fields 
are  surely  his,  both  by  birthright  and  as  the  meed  of  toil 
and  suffering,  if  he  but  persist  in  the  warfare,  if  he  but 
prove  faithfnl  to  the  one  talent  placed  in  his  keeping 
during  this  life;  renewing  his  courage  and  hope  in  the 
knowledge  that  greater  and  still  greater  opportunities  will 
be  afforded  him  in  future  lives  by  the  return  of  his  soul  to 
earth  through  the  golden  gate  of  REINCARNATION. 


APPENDIX. 

EMBRYOLOGY,  AND  REINCARNATION. 

WHILE  not  falling  strictly  within  the  purpose  of  this  work,  there 
are  certain  facts  connected  with  the  very  beginnings  of  physical 
life  that  are  of  sufficient  interest  and  importance  to  merit  brief  notice. 
For  these  facts  the  world  is  indebted  to  scientific  investigation;  for 
the  explanation  of  them,  it  must  look  to  the  philosophies  of  the  East. 
All  life  in  the  organic  kingdoms  of  nature  proceeds  from  a  cell; 
this  cell  being  in  essence  a  unit  body  of  protoplasm.  Subjected  to 
chemical  analysis  after  death,  Protoplasm  differs  in  its  chemical  con- 
stituents in  no  wise  from  matter  undoubtedly  belonging  to  the  so- 
called  inorganic  kingdom  beneath,  thus  showing  plainly  that  in 
matter  itself  is  not  to  be  found  the  cause  of  the  subsequent  evolution 
of  form  and  function;  but  that  something  besides  mere  chemical 
properties  has  been  added  to  the  material  molecules.  This  is  further 
shown  by  the  fact  that  the  chief  difference  in  the  simple  protozoic  or 
protophytic  cell  and  the  highly  organized  and  synthesized  plant  or 
animal  consists  in  the  fact  that  in  the  cell  the  function  is  complex, 
while  in  the  plant  or  animal  it  is  the  form.  The  beginnings  of  life 
thus  traced  down  to  the  unit  cell  of  protoplasm  seems  a  very  simple 
and  basic  starting  point,  when,  in  fact,  it  is  the  form  only  which  has 
become  simplified,  the  function  has  been  plunged  into  a  more  intri- 
cate maze  of  obscurity.  That  which  in  the  higher  organism  was  the 
work  of  hosts  of  differentiated  cells  and  complex  organs,  is  in  the  cell 
all  accomplished  without  any  such  aid;  the  simple,  unorganized,  un- 
differentiated  speck  of  Protoplasm  performing  many  of  the  complex 
and  all  of  the  necessary  functions  of  life  without  any  of  that  speciali- 
zation of  labor,  in  the  complex  form.  Desiring  to  change  its  locality, 
limbs  are  protruded  for  the  occasion;  feeling  hungry,  a  temporary 
stomach  is  manufactured,  and  so  on;  all  the  varied  functions  of  loco- 
motion, nutrition,  reproduction,  digestion,  with  many  others,  being 
done  by  means  of  the  same  un differentiated  protoplasmic  substance, 
showing  clearly  that  there  is  an  inner  power  merely  using  the  proto- 
plasm to  exhibit  these  functions.  It  is  thus  seen  that  the  function 
which  seemed  so  simple  when  the  form  was  complex  has  almost 
passed  beyond  the  possibility  of  explanation  when  the  form  in  turn 
has  become  simple. 


246  A   STUDY    OF    THE    SOUL. 

It  is  evident  that  the  idea  of  all  subsequent  evolution  of  form  is  po- 
tentially present  in  the  first  simple  cell,  and  that  all  modification  or 
differentiation  which  follows  is  but  the  slow  expression  of  this  ideal 
potency  in  form.  Therefore,  an  entity  utterly  without  experience 
upon  this  plane  would  of  necessity  begin  in  the  humblest  forms,  and 
only  very  gradually  modify  these  as  the  result  of  widened  conscious 
experience.  The  fact  that  in  the  lowly  forms  of  life  the  function 
greatly  exceeds  the  form  in  complexity  shows  conclusively  that  there 
is  an  inner  entity  synthesizing  these  functions,  and  that  evolution  in 
all  its  phases  is  but  the  outer  response  to  the  inner  idea,  and,  as  ideas 
necessitate  an  ideator,  an  inner  entity  is  therefore  necessitated. 

In  these  humblest  beginnings  of  life,  too,  are  to  be  found  many  an- 
alogies to  and  confirmations  of  the  tenet  of  Theosophy  that  every- 
thing in  the  Universe  proceeds  out  of  Unity  and  will  rebecome  Unity 
when  the  Universe  disappears  objectively  and  enters  upon  its  subjec- 
tive cycle,  or  Pralaya.  In  its  first  differentiation  or  manifestation 
this  Unity  evolved  Duality,  which  Duality,  together  with  the  Force 
which  brought  it  about,  constitute  the  three  Basic  Aspects  or  Hypos- 
tases  of  the  Absolute.  Transposing  these  terms  to  the  physical 
plane,  in  Protoplasm  may  be  recognized  the  analogue  of  Primordial 
Substance;  it  being,  in  its  relation  to  this  plane,  homogeneous  and 
capable  of  differentiation  into  any  organic  form,  no  matter  how  com- 
plex the  latter  may  be.  The  intelligence  which  guides  and  the  force 
which  brings  about  further  evolutionary  processes  are  the  correspond- 
ences to  the  Conscious-Aspect  and  Force-Aspect  of  the  Causeless 
Cause,  respectively. 

Taking  up  some  of  the  processes  of  Embryology,  we  can  find 
therein  the  analogies  to  the  Creative  processes  upon  even  the  highest 
planes.  Thus  the  Basic  Unity  is  shown  in  the  unit  cell  of  proto- 
plasm; duality  supervenes  in  its  first  and  entirely  inexplicable 
fission.  In  its  further  differentiation  into  ectoderm  endoderm  and 
mesoderm,  there  is  a  purely  physical  correspondence  of  a  law  which 
obta'ins  upon  the  plane  of  the  very  highest  differentiation.  In  the 
central  development  of  Spencer,  may  be  recognized  the  archaic 
symbol  of  the  Point  in  the  Circle;  in  the  axial,  the  point  has  become 
a  line  or  diameter,  and  so  on.  The  symbology  of  the  Bast  becomes 
luminous  with  meaning  once  it  is  intelligently  applied  to  nature's 
processes. 

Within  and  because  of  this  Primordial  Duality  arise  all  of  those 
polar  opposites,  such  as  attraction  and  repulsion,  positive  and  neg- 
ative states,  spirit  and  matter,  and — upon  the  purely  physical  plane 


EMBRYOLOGY,  AND    REINCARNATION.  247 

— male  and  female.  That  sex  is  a  differentiation  upon  the  physical 
plane  only,  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  all  reproduction  is  at  first  purely 
asexual.  Sex,  upon  this  plane,  corresponds  to  a  principle  which 
causes  differentiation  upon  those  higher.  As  the|  Protoplasm  re- 
sponds more  and  more  to  the  inner  energy,  there  is  first  the  cell 
specialization  for  the  reproductive  act,  and  then  this  differentiation, 
with  many  variants  and  partial  reversions  to  the  primal  type,  be- 
comes extended  to  individuals.  Sexual  differentiation  is  but  another 
instance  of  the  widening  of  conscious  area  through  experience  of  the 
"pairs  of  opposites."  As  a  purely  physical  process,  the  theory  of 
anabolic  and  katabolic  differentiation  of  energy  very  probably  ex- 
plains its  origin;  but  the  inner  cause  of  the  anabolism  and  katabolism 
is  still  as  much  a  mystery  as  ever  unless  we  recognize  the  inner  en- 
tity undergoing  conscious  experience  in  the  only  school  and  by  the 
sole  method  of  which  we  can  conceive — that  of  experience  of  the 
"  opposites,"  by  virtue  of  which  the  very  Universe  itself  exists.  Sex 
exemplifies  the  positive  and  negative  forces  or  aspects  of  the  Abso- 
lute upon  the  purely  physical  plane. 

That  there  is  an  inner  entity  thus  continuously  widening  its  con- 
scious area  through  evolution  is  the  only  logical  deduction  from  the 
phenomena  of  evolution  itself.  All  of  that  careful  examination  and 
cautious  ratiocination  by  which  it  is  proven  that  the  fowl,  for  in- 
stance, has  been  evolved  from  the  fish,  only  emphasizes  the  fact  that 
it  must  be  the  same  inner  entity  which  was  the  fish,  arid  which  is 
now  the  fowl.  If  it  has  been  necessary  to  take  the  first  steps 
towards  constructing  a  bird  by  building  a  fish  form,  this  proves  that 
the  idea  of  the  bird  was  present,  and  slowly  modifying  the  fish 
throughout  its  entire  existence  as  a  fish.  To  disconnect  the  fish  from 
the  bird  for  a  single  moment  is  to  overthrow  the  entire  evolutionary 
process.  If  the  one  is  really  the  modification  of  the  other,  then  both 
throughout  their  respective  evolutionary  cycles  are  as  much  the  same 
entity  as  are  the  child  and  the  man,  or  the  butterfly  and  the  cater- 
pillar. Kither  they  are  connected  causally  by  the  evolutionary 
modification  of  the  one  from  the  other,  or  they  are  not.  If,  as  evo- 
lution declares,  they  are  thus  connected,  then  it  is  the  same  entity 
which  has,  during  the  whole  period,  been  slowly  evolving  different 
and  more  perfect  forms.  There  is  no  logical  escape  from  this  con- 
clusion. 

Without  pursuing  further  the  subject  of  reproduction  in  general, 
there  are  many  facts  in  human  embryological  detail  which  go  to 
prove  that  this  process  is  a  specific  obedience  of  the  outer  Protoplasm 


248  A   STUDY   OF   THE   SOUL. 

to  an  inner,  intelligent  force.  Among  these  is  the  wonderful  response 
of  the  uterus  to  the  stimulation  of  the  developing  embryo.  If  this 
were  a  purely  mechanical  stimulation,  due  to  the  presence  of  the 
embryo,  other  foreign  bodies  ought  to  call  out  the  same  or  a  similar 
response.  But  this  is  not  the  case.  The  womb  will  quickly  expel 
any  invader  of  its  cavity;  even  a  tumor  in  its  walls  is  often  extruded 
as  a  polypus.  Instead,  however,  of  attempting  to  expel  the  fecun- 
dated cell,  every  effort  is  made  by  the  uterus  to  retain  and  nourish 
it.  There  is  poured  out  from  the  uterine  walls  an  abundant  supply 
of  the  most  highly  nutritious,  albuminous  pabulum  from  which  the 
growing  embryo  builds  its  marvelously  perfect  body ;  each  tissue 
under  the  guidance  of  the  inner  entity  differentiating  out  of  the  com- 
mon protoplasmic  stock. 

At  this  point,  perhaps,  it  may  be  well  to  call  attention  to  the 
grossly  incorrect  "scientific"  teaching  concerning  the  nutrition  of 
the  fetus,  if  but  to  show  how  carefully  one  must  examine  even  the 
most  unquestioned  scientific  statements  if  he  would  avoid  steering 
into  the  Charybdis  of  dogmatic  assertion  in  endeavoring  to  keep 
clear  of  the  Scyllae  of  ignorance.  This  teaching  is  to  the  effect  that 
the  fetus  is  nourished  through  the  placenta.  The  true  modus  ofierandi 
was  discovered  by  the  author  during  a  series  of  experiments  extend- 
ing over  i882-'83,  and  was  first  published  in  the  American  Jonrnal  of 
Obstetrics  in  1884,  in  a  paper  entitled  "  A  New  Theory  of  Fetal 
Nutrition,"  from  which  I  shall  freely  quote.  This  theory  is,  that 
once  conception  has  taken  place  the  fetus  is  nourished  by  absorb- 
tion  of  nutritive  material  secreted  and  poured  into  the  uterine  cavity 
from  its  walls,  and  that  the  office  of  the  placenta  is  purely  respiratory, 
or  an  oxygen  carrier  and  carbonic  acid  gas  remover.  The  facts 
which  prove  this  to  be  the  correct  view  are: 

i.  The  constant  presence  of  nutritive  substances  in  the  amni- 
otic  fluid  during  the  entire  period  of  gestation.  2.  The  certainty 
of  this  fluid  being  absorbed  by  a  developing  fetus  constantly  bathed 
in  it.  3.  The  permeability  of  the  digestive  tract  at  an  early  period, 
and  the  necessary  entrance  therein,  according  to  the  laws  of  hydro- 
statics, of  the  albuminous  amniotic  fluid.  4.  The  presence  of 
meconium  in  the  intestine,  urine  in  the  bladder,  and  bile  in  the 
upper  intestine — all  in  their  normal  locations.  5.  The  mechanical 
difficulties  opposing  direct  nutrition  through  the  placenta.  6. 
The  absence  of  a  placenta  until  the  third  month,  and  its  entire  ab- 
sence in  the  non-placental  mammalia.  7.  The  maternal  source 
of  the  fluid,  as  shown  by  the  hydrorrhoeas,  etc.,  of  pregnancy. 


EMBRYOLOGY,  AND    REINCARNATION.  249 

The  presence  of  meconium — a  residue  after  absorbtive  digestion — 
and  of  urine  and  bile  are  all  incompatible  with  the  theory  of  nutri- 
tive material  being  conveyed  to  the  embryo  through  the  placenta  ; 
but  the  most  prominent  fact  enumerated  above  is  the  constant  pres- 
ence of  albumen  in  the  amniotic  fluid.  This  constant  presence 
means  that  it  is  not  accidental.  One  of  the  most  plausible  theories 
as  to  the  uses  of  the  amniotic  fluid  is  that  it  constitutes  a  kind  of 
water  cushion  to  protect  the  embryo  from  mechanical  injury.  This 
is  no  doubt  one  use.  But  if  this  were  all  we  would  not  find  nature 
supplying  a  very  precious  and  costly — to  the  mother — ingredient,  or 
albumen.  This  would  be  worse  than  a  blunder.  It  would  be  a  crime 
against  maternity.  If  we  suppose,  with  Lusk  and  a  host  of  other 
authors,  that  the  source  of  this  fluid  "  is  at  first  simply  an  exudate 
from  the  tissues  of  the  fetus,"  and,  later,  "  urine  secreted  and 
voided  by  the  fetus,"  we  have  the  highly  "scientific"  anomaly  of  a 
fetus  developing  a  benignant  Bright's  disease,  voiding  urine  contain- 
ing as  high  as  three  per  cent,  of  albumen,  and  growing  fat  and 
sturdy  under  conditions  surely  fatal  to  an  adult  subjected  to  a  similar 
drain.  In  short,  the  further  one  searches  for  the  origin  and  uses  of 
the  amniotic  fluid  the  wilder  all  hypotheses  become,  unless  we 
accept  the  simplest  explanation— almost  invariably  the  best — that  it 
is  secreted  by  the  intra-uterine  surfaces  for  the  nourishment  of  the 
fetus. 

Accepting  this,  the  correspondence  of  the  macrocosmic  and 
microcosmic  processes  is  apparent.  The  woinb  represents  Cosmic 
Space — the  universal  matrix.  The  fecundated  egg  focalizes,  synthe- 
sizes and  transmutes  or  transfers  to  the  material  plane  the  subject- 
ive force  of  the  reincarnating  entity.  From  this  "point  in  the 
circle  "  exudes  not  the  physical  but  the  spiritual  amniotic  fluid,  the 
force  which  causes  the  physical  fluid  to  flow  from  the  uterine  walls, 
or,  in  the  macrocosm,  from  Cosmic  Space.  Following  the  successive 
upward  steps  in  the  building  of  its  bundle  of  material  sense  organs, 
it  is  easy  to  see  that  each  specific  process  but  exemplifies  a  general 
law  in  nature.  As  has  been  pointed  out,  the  eye  is  built  up  with  all 
its  nicety  of  optical  detail  and  physiological  capacity  for  psychologi- 
cal use  without  ever  having  received  a  single  impulse  from  those 
light  waves  to  which  science  would  fain  teach  us  it  is  a  specific  re- 
sponse. Granite  boulders  have  been  subjected  to  the  daily  stimula- 
tion of  direct  light  waves  for  untold  ages;  why  are  they  not  studded 
with  eyes  ?  Similarly  with  hearing.  Not  only  is  an  exquisitely  per- 
fect organ  built  up  in  the  absence  of  all  but  very  indistinct  sounds, 


250  A   STUDY    OF    THE   SOUL. 

but  this  organ  remains  incapable  of  hearing  until  certain  post-natal 
processes  have  taken  place.  And  so  on;  not  only  each  sense  organ, 
but  also  the  entire  form, is  constructed  in  specific  response  to  an  inner 
directing  energy.  It.  is  the  return  to  incarnation  of  an  entity  having 
the  spiritual  potentialities  of  sense  perception,  which  become  poten- 
cies through  the  opportunity  afforded  by  fecundation  and  gestation. 
There  is  no  other  rational  explanation  for  the  function  building  the 
form  except  as  the  effect  of  an  inner  entity  having  such  function  in 
potentia,  if  not  in  actu. 

Thus  process  after  process  in  embryology  might  be  taken  up  and 
the  presence  of  the  inner,  designing  entity  proven  ;  but  enough  has 
been  pointed  out  to  indicate  the  train  of  reasoning  which  is  to  be 
applied  to  them  all,  should  any  desire  to  carry  their  investigations 
further  than  is  possible  in  this  brief  and  sketchy  appendix. 


THEOSOPHY. 


The  Objects  of  THE  THEOSOPHICAI,  SOCIETY  are:  FIRST. — To  form 
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tinction of  race,  creed,  sex,  caste  or  color.  SECOND. — To  promote 
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ences.  THIRD. — To  investigate  unexplained  laws  of  nature  and  the 
psychical  powers  of  man. 

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